alt Hacker NewsUnrelated: is there a delay on HN between submission and publication? I posted that article a few days ago and the header is now "3 hours ago".
Replies
HNs system can be hard to figure out. I posted an ~identical article to one that hit #1 on top page a few hours before the other guy. My own posting only got like 8 votes. I have no idea what I did wrong. I think there is some randomness in the beginning; if a couple people notice it in the first 15 or 20 minutes then it stays high enough other people notice it and then it snowballs.
If you have a good post though that gets overlooked someone will commonly "steal" it and use a slightly different article and good chance that one will get traction. Surprised no one thought to do that before you got a second chance.
Some postings get a second chance if they're considered interesting but didn't get much traction the first time around.
More info: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26998308