I don't see what you mean about disappearing within seconds of submission, though. The 30th story on the new page is currently 5 hours old. That gives submissions plenty of time to get voted up.

With that admission, and in a completely sober state this time, I would rephrase the question. First, I apologize for the over-the-top remarks in the original submission completely.

Since it sparked some discussion on improving HN though, at least it wasn't a complete waste. Obviously I do think HN is an amazing resource already and I'll be here for a long time to come hopefully :) I also do understand some stories (esp. ones about exciting happenings at bigger companies, which all were once startups) get votes and are interesting to HN readers including myself. I totally followed the Yahoo/MS stuff as well, like a moth to a flame :)

As a discussion forum or a resource someone can turn to for access to the startup community though, HN as it stands is a news site and not a forum. The news-style voting efficiently filters for hackers who have little time to be sifting themselves, and a few false-positives being missed is worth it. But I think there's an opportunity to improve the utility of HN as a community and make it even more useful for founders and would-be founders.

I don't think adding a forum is the right approach, because that eliminates the filter, which is undesirable. But if you add a section for 'Ask' style posts, you'll keep the voting and you've essentially got a forum with a filter.

If the site keeps growing, which it seems you're actively trying to control (I remember recent discussion about removing HN from some search engines), adding a few other sections might help too. But limiting growth is good, and multiple sections may enable an explosion of growth in content and so in types of readers (as opposed to just founders and would-be founders).

Whatever the current algorithm is, it did bury my last post within seconds. I had my partner vote on it right away as well, but we literally went page after page and gave up after about 10 pages of clicking 'Next' and didn't see it anywhere about 10 seconds after submitting it. So it seems like it never had a chance, and it may be that new submissions are being too aggressively filtered in the current algorithm...

Anyway, I better go set my workstation password to something I can't type if I've had a few drinks ;)

Perhaps a side-bar on the front page listing the most recently submitted articles would be nice so that they at least creep into the peripheral vision of those visiting the front page.

I've started making a point to dig through the "new" page to upvote where appropriate, but I suspect most readers don't bother.

Not even a few seconds. A brand new story is only visible on the new page.

Here's what interests me most:

  1. Things startups have actually done to improve their product or service.
  2. Things startups have actually done to understand customers better.
  3. Things startups have actually done to increase market share.

I'm especially disinterested in abstract language/framework wars that aren't tied to any particular application. I never feel like I've learned anything from those discussions. I would be interested in a specific example of how language X worked well for doing Y.

If somebody would keep up with the new page and comment on every story about things startups have actually done, I would follow their comments and vote up those stories.

I found only two submissions from you, both 10 or 11 days old, so the current mix of news on the front page isn't really relevant. In one case, as rms notes, the question would've been better posed to an accountant. In the other case, you never bothered joining in on the discussion, which is a good way to kill a thread.

I definitely don't think there's cause for saying that HN has a glut of 'generic reddit-style stories', or that the discussion here is reducing itself to 'the intellectual tedium of sensationalist media', just because the two questions you posed didn't get any traction at the time. I would expect that the archetypal successful entrepreneur wouldn't give up and cry foul quite so quickly.

This is something that is very interesting to the majority of the audience here, even if it is distracting from actually creating a startup. There is nothing you can do to stop this discussion. We are discussing one of the biggest things to happen in the history of Big Internet. Ask more interesting questions if you want to engage the community, hackers are not interested in accounting questions. Ask your accountant.

From what I've seen before, this works like a charm. Everybody keeps up visiting the main site, but the few that needs more focus start to feed the second portal. Interesting stories of the second portal will get into the main one, adding value to submissions. Win-Win.

Remember the early days of HN ? There is a need for this kind of environment that disappeared when HN got popular. So make a second portal running, announce it, and it'll take off slowly effortlessly.

Resubmit it. Tweak the headline somehow. Say something like, "Really need some help..." or "Ask YC: How do you handle..." I, for one, would be glad to help if I can.

This board is like a "mini startup world" in itself (although much more sympathetic). Things go wrong. Things aren't fair. The world isn't quite ready. Don't complain. Do something about it. Consider it practice for when things really get unfair.

"ASK" type comments, which are pretty much a forum. And a separate reddit news type thing.

It seems like if these 2 things were separated, then what are essentially forum posts, would have a better chance of a response.

Personally I think separating it and having a specific forum for startup topics would really improve things.