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Have a look at my recent submissions.

(https://news.ycombinator.com/submitted?id=DanBC)

Some of it is guff that shouldn't have been subbed. Some of it is interesting and it got ignored. Some of it is not particularly great, but it got a few upvotes then got many more as it hit the front page.

Items 3 and 4 in the list were posted very close together in time, and were unlikely to have been subbed by anyone else. One got no votes, the other made front page for a while and got comments.

     * How to Almost Build an Engine With Only Parts From the Hardware Store [video] (howtolou.com)
        87 points by DanBC 21 hours ago | 44 comments
	
     *Programming the Vintage Intel MCS-48 Microcontrollers (theresistornetwork.com)
        1 point by DanBC 22 hours ago | discuss

And then there are the articles that get upvotes, and also get flags. The responsive URLs article (11 in the list) got 6 upvotes, but was flagged to death. The Wikipedia loo roll article got 9 upvotes, and two comments (with a 3rd comment asking why the hell it had been posted) but was also flagged.

I don't claim my subs are any good, or that they shouldn't be flagged, but it is confusing.



It's a combination of quality and luck.

I've gone to bed posting something I thought was mildly relevant and woken up to a big bump in karma.

I've posted something I thought was incredible and seen it wind up with one upvote.

Then again, why do I submit articles? Mainly because I think it will contribute to HN. If it doesn't, it doesn't. I tend to achieve more consistency with my writing anyway, and that's a more valuable skill to boot.




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