Quick story - I submitted a Show HN last week and got 2 points. Slightly dissappointed, I asked my friend Claude to look into post engagement patterns over the last ~180 days using HN's public Algolia API.
Takeaways -
1. The standard advice (Tue–Thu 8–10am ET) is pretty bad, with -12% fewer posts in this window reaching 50+ points vs. overall average.
2. Main correlate identified for post engagement was fewer competing posts in same window, i.e., % of posts in a given window hitting 50+ points is inversely correlated with total number of posts in that window (r = -0.7).
3. The whole effect is moderate though, best day is 1.41× higher than worst day.
4. Sadly or happily for me, Show HN posts are less engaged with than the average post. Median outcome for Show HN is 2 points, and only ~3% of posts clear 50+ points (vs. 6.5% of posts in general).
So net net - post on low volume days (Sat or Sun) if you're trying to hyper-optimize. But mostly, post whenever. Taking my own advice posting this on a Tuesday :)
Quick story - I submitted a Show HN last week and got 2 points. Slightly dissappointed, I asked my friend Claude to look into post engagement patterns over the last ~180 days using HN's public Algolia API.
Takeaways - 1. The standard advice (Tue–Thu 8–10am ET) is pretty bad, with -12% fewer posts in this window reaching 50+ points vs. overall average. 2. Main correlate identified for post engagement was fewer competing posts in same window, i.e., % of posts in a given window hitting 50+ points is inversely correlated with total number of posts in that window (r = -0.7). 3. The whole effect is moderate though, best day is 1.41× higher than worst day. 4. Sadly or happily for me, Show HN posts are less engaged with than the average post. Median outcome for Show HN is 2 points, and only ~3% of posts clear 50+ points (vs. 6.5% of posts in general).
So net net - post on low volume days (Sat or Sun) if you're trying to hyper-optimize. But mostly, post whenever. Taking my own advice posting this on a Tuesday :)