Hacker News Posting Skill

Platform Overview

Hacker News (news.ycombinator.com) is Y Combinator's community for hackers, founders, and intellectual curiosity. The audience is senior developers, CTOs, and tech founders. Content that reaches the front page can drive 10K-50K visits in hours. The community is extremely anti-marketing and values substance over polish.

Platform Constraints

• Title: Max ~80 characters (longer titles get truncated)
• Submissions: URL or text (not both simultaneously)
• Show HN: Prefix for sharing what you've built
• Ask HN: Prefix for asking the community a question
• Comments: Plain text, supports markdown-lite
• No images: HN is text-only, no media uploads
• No tags/hashtags: None

Posting Steps (Browser Automation)

1. Navigate to

   https://news.ycombinator.com/submit

2. Wait for the submit form to load (must be logged in)
3. Type the title (ASCII English only)
   • For projects: prefix with "Show HN: "
   • For questions: prefix with "Ask HN: "
4. Either:
   • Type a URL in the "url" field (for link submissions)
   • OR type text in the "text" field (for text submissions)
5. Click "submit" button
6. Verify submission appears on /newest

Content Format

Show HN (Sharing Your Project)

Title: Show HN: {Product Name} -- {What it does in <10 words}

Text:
{1 paragraph: What problem does it solve?}

{1 paragraph: What's technically interesting about your approach?}

{1 paragraph: Current status and what feedback you're looking for}

{Optional: link to source code if open-source}

Link Submission

Title: {Original article title or descriptive summary}
URL: {Link to high-quality content}

Ask HN

Title: Ask HN: {Specific, clear question}

Text:
{Context for the question}

{What you've already tried or considered}

{Specific aspect you need help with}

Title Strategy

The title is 90% of what determines success on HN. Rules:

Do:

• Use the original article title (if submitting a link)
• Be specific and factual: "Show HN: An open-source alternative to Notion built in Rust"
• Include technical details that make it interesting

Don't:

• Use clickbait: "You won't believe..."
• Use marketing language: "Revolutionary", "Game-changing"
• Use ALL CAPS or excessive punctuation

HN Score Algorithm

• Ranking = (score - 1) / (time + 2)^gravity
• Score = upvotes - downvotes (only 500+ karma users can downvote)
• Gravity = 1.8 (posts decay quickly, ~6-12 hours on front page)
• "New" page shows recent submissions before they accumulate votes
• Posts flagged as self-promotional get penalized

Content Strategy

• Be technically substantive: HN rewards depth over polish
• Open-source is valued: Share source code when possible
• Explain the "why": Why did you build it? Why this approach?
• Be honest about limitations: The community respects transparency
• Engage in comments: Thoughtful replies boost engagement signals

Algorithm / Discovery Tips

• Post during US morning hours (8-11 AM EST) for maximum visibility
• Posts need early upvotes to escape /newest and reach front page
• Second-chance pool: some posts get a second visibility window
• Weekday posts get more engagement than weekends
• Show HN posts get special treatment in ranking

Best Practices

• Read HN guidelines: https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html
• Comment quality matters more than post frequency
• Share the original source, not a re-blog
• If posting your own work, be transparent about it
• Build karma through quality comments before submitting

What to Avoid

• Astroturfing (fake upvotes or organized voting)
• Submitting low-quality blog posts or listicles
• Marketing speak in titles or text
• Resubmitting recently posted content
• Commenting on your own post with alt accounts

Known Pitfalls

• HN rate-limits submissions (don't post too frequently)
• New accounts have limited posting privileges
• Posts can be flagged and killed by moderators or community
• No way to edit a title after submission
• Penalty for self-submissions if not tagged as "Show HN"

Related Skills

• content-writing

  — Show HN post templates