We tracked 605 Show HN posts for 63 days – 99% were gone in a week
17 hours ago
- #Show HN
- #Hacker News
- #Data Analysis
- Scraped Hacker News's top 50 stories every ~30 minutes for 63 days, collecting 2,922 snapshots.
- 605 Show HN posts reached the front page; 51% disappeared within 30 minutes, only 1% stayed for a full week.
- Points don't correlate with visibility duration; the highest-scoring Show HN (3,234 points) was gone in a day.
- Median Show HN post gets one 30-minute window in the top 50 before disappearing.
- Only 6 posts survived 7+ days, averaging 44 points, showing slow-burn relevance beats viral spikes.
- Tuesday posts had a 60% higher average peak score (110 points) compared to other days.
- The hour of posting didn't affect scores; content mattered more than timing.
- Long-surviving posts were tools (AI coding, infrastructure, developer utilities), not entertainment.
- HN's ranking algorithm aggressively decays posts to keep the front page fresh.
- Recommendation: Build tools people return to, not one-time viral hits, and leverage the initial traffic window for ongoing connections.