[satvikpendem]

Analogous to the 1% Rule [0]:

> In Internet culture, the 1% rule is a general rule of thumb pertaining to participation in an Internet community, stating that only 1% of the users of a website actively create new content, while the other 99% of the participants only lurk. Variants include the 1–9–90 rule (sometimes 90–9–1 principle or the 89:10:1 ratio),[1] which states that in a collaborative website such as a wiki, 90% of the participants of a community only consume content, 9% of the participants change or update content, and 1% of the participants add content.

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1%25_rule

[falcor84]

I don't know what the current HN usage stats are, but assume you would still need to explain about 3 additional orders of magnitude to get from 1% of HN down to "a few dozen".

[satvikpendem]

It doesn't necessarily literally mean 1%, it's just an informal rule emphasizing the power law nature of creators of content versus its consumers.