HN Upvoting Mechanics

Cluster focuses on Hacker News' upvoting system, including algorithms, heuristics like upvote-to-comment ratios, suspicions of manipulation, and strategies to influence visibility.

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5,612
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Years Active
5
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#8987
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Activity Over Time

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Keywords

STORIES HN ycombinator.com LinkLonk OqSQJfd.png RELATED PICK EASILY COMMENTS NOT upvotes votes upvote hn voting upvoted vote comments stories posts

Sample Comments

nitrogen Dec 23, 2010 View on HN

Perhaps the upvote heuristic used by the HN hive mind is a bit more complex than you initially believed?

ryanSrich Dec 4, 2023 View on HN

The upvote to comment ratio is off (too many comments and not enough upvotes), which is a negative signal to the HN algorithm.

saadalem Feb 29, 2020 View on HN

How do we ensure the upvotes on HN ? I posted this 3 days ago

red-iron-pine Aug 14, 2023 View on HN

time to start thinking about who (and what) is upvoting things on HN.

moistbar Jun 11, 2021 View on HN

I have a hunch that upvotes/minute matters too.

MoronInAHurry Sep 12, 2019 View on HN

Because people upvoted it and that's how HN works.

sa-code May 3, 2025 View on HN

Is this an ad? Can you buy upvotes for HN?

rydre Jun 19, 2020 View on HN

Anyone who cares about this issue, just upvote, don't comment. HN's algorithm downranks posts where the comment to upvote ratio is too high.

ebauch May 1, 2015 View on HN

sometimes I am wondering what get voted up on HN

llimos Mar 5, 2021 View on HN

Would be interesting to know how many up and down votes HN is sending that answer.