Yeah, you need some luck to make it to the front page. If I recall correctly, one vote can be enough, but it has to be done soon after submission time.
Once you get past that threshold, karma skyrockets.
It gets worse because not many "interesting" people dedicate some time to /newest. I used to go there once every day. The main problem is HN doesn't discriminate by topic combined with lack of downvote. The noise to signal ratio is too high. There are way too many spam, blogspam and metoo articles against a few actual interesting submissions. And most times a blogspam article gets to the frontpage instead of the original source. It's a shame.
In reddit the people doing the honorable job of upvoting new stories are called "Knights of New". This effect is notable on good communities like /r/programming. Trash submissions quickly get downvoted.
In reddit the people doing the honorable job of upvoting new stories are called "Knights of New". This effect is notable on good communities like /r/programming. Trash submissions quickly get downvoted.