Hacker News: no second chances

Roll call of the fallen

Private Please-Upvote posted his launch in a group chat with "go vote!" Corporal Ghostwriter let a chatbot polish his comment. Both learned that Hacker News writes short guidelines and means every word.

(Composites, recruit.)

What Hacker News rewards

• Curiosity. "It's ok to post your own stuff part of the time, but the primary use of the site should be for curiosity" (HN guidelines).
• The original source. "If a post reports on something found on another site, submit the latter" (same source).
• Humans talking. "HN is for conversation between humans" (same source).

What Hacker News penalizes

• Asking for votes or comments. "Don't solicit upvotes, comments, or submissions." Votes and comments should come from people who find a post interesting, not from a promotion push (same source).
• Promotion as a habit. "Please don't use HN primarily for promotion" (same source).
• Generated text. "Don't post generated text or AI-edited text" (same source).
• Delete and repost. "Please don't delete and repost" (same source).

Do's and don'ts

• Do submit things you'd read yourself, with the original title.
• Do write every comment yourself, and stay for the discussion.
• Don't tell anyone to go vote, not even your team.
• Don't submit your own links every day.
• Hypothesis: HN's ranking discounts votes that arrive from one shared link or one group at once. Widely believed; HN doesn't publish its ranking.

What Blowhorn does on Hacker News

Blowhorn submits links and text posts and comments from your own Chrome. It never votes: there's nothing to configure and no way to turn it on. It allows at most 2 link submissions per profile per UTC day and fails a title over 80 characters rather than cutting it (Platforms). Every submission is permanent, so dry-run first.