HACKER Q&A
📣 ursAxZA

What happens when a new user's submission disappears?


My account is 8 days old and I submitted a link earlier today.

For the first few hours everything looked normal at first — the discussion page existed, and the submission appeared in my profile.

A few hours later, the discussion page disappeared. When I log out, the submission no longer appears in my profile at all.

There was no “dead” flag or moderation notice — it simply vanished.

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Also, when I’m logged in I still see all five of my submissions, but when I log out only four appear. The missing one is exactly the link that disappeared. If this is just a display quirk on my side and others can still see it, apologies in advance — I may simply be misunderstanding how submissions behave for new users.

The post itself was harmless (an educational piece about a visualization method for helping children understand multiplication), so I’m trying to figure out whether this is normal behavior for new accounts or a sign that the submission was auto-filtered.

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So I’d like to ask:

• Is it common for low-karma, new accounts to have submissions silently filtered out?

• Do certain titles or post formats trigger automated removal?

• Could I have unknowingly violated a guideline?

And related to that:

• Is it acceptable to repost later with a different title?

• Or is there a recommended way to avoid triggering filters as a new user?

• Would this type of post have been better as a “Show HN”?

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I’m not trying to game karma — just trying to understand how HN handles new-user submissions so I can avoid repeating the same mistake.

If this is expected behavior, I’d appreciate any insight into the underlying heuristics.

If this question itself violates any norms, please let me know — I’m still learning how HN works.

Thanks.


  👤 steerpike Accepted Answer ✓
If you join HN and immediately start posting links to your own site you'll almost certainly be flagged by users.

👤 mtmail
> Is it common for low-karma, new accounts to have submissions silently filtered out?

Yes. I don't know the exact thresholds. Usually needs an old account to click 'vouch'. These days there's often too many submissions in one hour and not enough users browsing /new to look for interesting content. I clicked 'vouch' now.

> Do certain titles or post formats trigger automated removal?

Duplicates (same title, same URL) I think, obvious spam, some domains are blocked automatically. I don't see anything applying to your submissions.

> Could I have unknowingly violated a guideline?

Not sure. Maybe submission too many new stories in the first day. It shouldn't matter.

> Would this type of post have been better as a “Show HN”?

Show HN is usually for things one can try in their browser or on their computer, something interactive. Sometimes a video qualifies because it shows what a user would see. Long content, blog posts usually don't qualify. https://news.ycombinator.com/showhn.html

> I’m still learning how HN works

10 years in, I'm still learning, too. The algorithms change.


👤 gnabgib
You have violated a guideline:

> Please don't use HN primarily for promotion. It's ok to post your own stuff part of the time, but the primary use of the site should be for curiosity.

And again with this submission:

> Please don't post on HN to ask or tell us something. Send it to hn@ycombinator.com.

.. perhaps you could give them a read?

https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html