[vulpes]

Because getting anything TechStars related to the front page of Hacker News is an uphill battle (which most of the Boulder HN folk realize and simply not submit TC material) here are some examples:

* FiltrBox 7 pts: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=246634

* TC 09 Graduation discussion 29 pts, 6 comments: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=746347

* OneFourty 1pt: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=849893

Majority never even make it past 1 point, they ether are set to dead for some reason or just have no support to ever make it out to the front page and if they do, community at large are simply not receptive to the story so it dies quickly. The confrontation goes back to when TechStars first started in 07 because they were the 2nd tech start up "incubator" (even though more correct term is accelerator) and YC community felt ether threatened or uninterested by the proposition and simply ignored those submissions. Solution is simple, just get your TechStars fix somewhere else, perhaps a filtrbox keyword search for techstars is a great start :)

Edit: would love to hear the reason for the downvotes.

[sachinag]

My reason: I really don't think there's a conspiracy to keep TechStars stuff off the front page here. If the community doesn't vote it up, it doesn't vote it up. If there are all those HN people in Boulder, then y'all can vote it up. But there have been lots of positive comments and congrats for TechStars portfolio companies here on HN.

[vulpes]

Fair point, I was trying very hard not to come out sounding like a guy with a tinfoil hat. To sum it up: I believe there is simply not enough interest towards TechStars posts due to the reasons I outlined. It's certainly not a targeted backlash as some feel toward TechCrunch or clear affinity towards a subject, i.e YC-related startups.

We could form a gang and get enough upvotes to make the front page, but once its there, community has to be interested enough to keep it on the home page for any useful period of time, and as many experiences in the past indicate, thats just hasn't been the case.

[plinkplonk]

My reason for the downvote, snark aimed at HN

e.g: " they either are set to dead for some reason "

For the one example I looked at (from the links you provided) PG explained that the reason it was set to dead was that it was a duplicate. http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=746980. That isn't "some reason". That is a very clear reason.

"YC community felt either threatened or uninterested"

The first guess is stupid.

What basis do you have for this? Just state the facts ("These didn't get many upvotes") and leave the amateur psychoanalysis where it belongs.

Imagining conspiracy theories where there aren't any is worth a downvote.

As sachinag points out above, if the community didn't up vote the submission, it didn't upvote the submission. That's all.

Now if something you submitted didn't get any upvotes there is no need to whine about it or imagine a conspiracy. It happens to all of us.

[vulpes]

Thank you for your feedback, trying to come up with a concrete answer to OP's question before this post runs its course is tough, as is finding good examples of past submissions. Perhaps searchyc.com doesn't include dead articles, maybe I'm missing a great opportunity to submit techstars related content, but examples I gave are indeed quite shitty and rest of the argument totally breaks down.

I do present you with 1 interesting discussion on a few similarities between techstars and ycominator startups (Loopt/Brightkite, Foodzie/Foodoro and IntenseDebate/Disqus) which of course brings up great points for both sides of the argument: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=547991

[plinkplonk]

"great points for both sides of the argument"

What argument?

No one here is arguing there aren't similarities between YC startups or TS startups (which is what the discussion you pointed to seems to be about. One fellow seemed to make nebulous accusations and PG responded strongly http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=548102).

I don't see the "similarity" argument in the comments above anywhere. I am not sure why you provided this link as supporting "both sides of the argument".

so again, what argument is this new link supporting? Your "argument" (such as it was) was that the YC community is threatened by TS and so doesn't upvote or flags content about them. And when asked for supporting rationale you don't have any.

Fwiw I don't have a startup, have no plans of starting one in the near future and YC doesn't operate where I live. I hang out here because it is a great forum full of interesting people, contributing great comments and topics. That is it.

Ok. You asked why you were downvoted and I said why I downvoted. I am done with this thread. Onward!

[andrewhyde]

Interesting discussion here. I don't buy into the conspiracy theory at all. We all have a deep respect for YC and HN, and I don't usually try to press stories here (it is their sandbox after all, and I don't think it would be too respectful to jump up and down to press the startups).

If there is something we can share, teach or learn, we are here.