[mna_]

My HN viewing habit: check frontpage quickly (only the frontpage, rarely beyond that), check "new" for 5-6 pages to see if anyone has posted something cool, and then lastly check "active" and go through every page because that's where the interesting discussions are.

I used to think the frontpage was natural and unadulterated but then I learned that dang, tomhow, et al "curate" the frontpage, so you essentially see what they want you to see, but with "active" there's less of that.

[hnlmorg]

I don't think they curate it. From what I understand it is basically just "hot" submissions. However they do have the ability to bump individual submissions onto the front page if they feel a specific submission might have been of interest to the community but was previously overlooked when it was "new".

If I understand that correctly, then I think that's a nice balance. It means the front page is largely items that the community, as a general, that voted on. But it also gives the opportunity for interesting submissions to have a second chance if they did slip through the system unnoticed.