Tell HN: Want a better HN? Visit /newest
23 minutes ago
Most good posts die in /newest, buried under low-quality submissions.
HN depends on people visiting /newest and upvoting or flagging what they see.
A few minutes there each day probably does more for HN than commenting.
It’s anonymous, thankless work, like Reddit’s old “Knights of New,” but it makes a difference.
https://news.ycombinator.com/newest
https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html
I’m grateful for those who do visit /newest because it’s a cesspit of spam and uninteresting links that, justifiably, never make their way to the home page.
/active, on the other hand, is the real insiders tip. It shows the most active submissions, irrespective of whether they’ve been flagged off the homepage by users who want to avoid “controversial” topics. You don’t want it to replace the homepage as it’ll drive you mad over time but it’s worth checking in with to see what conversation is being hidden from you.
https://news.ycombinator.com/active
I really like https://news.ycombinator.com/best?h=24 with the GET parameter for hours.
If you're wondering what those /* urls mean and what else is there: https://news.ycombinator.com/lists
No so thankless: there are many interesting links that never make it to the front page and the only way to find them is browse the first two or three pages of New. It's self rewarding.
Indeed, a few friends have been submitting an important piece on a new open/FOSS platform, but have been unable to get it noticed. It really needs feedback:
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46079803
I like /active personally which will show controversial topics.
https://news.ycombinator.com/active
I do visit pretty often along with https://news.ycombinator.com/pool
For me, the better HN is https://hckrnews.com/