[driverdan]

One of the open secrets of YC alumni is that many will vote brigade new posts by other YC companies when asked. This has been confirmed to me by multiple YC alumni and I've seen it in practice.

This isn't to say others don't do it to, they do, just that it's another "benefit" of going through YC.

[dang]

They do, but it ends up backfiring because those posts typically get hit by HN's voting ring detector. It's definitely not a "benefit" of going through YC. We tell YC alumni over and over not to do this, that the rules are the same for everybody, and that the way to get on the front page is by posting something intellectually interesting. Many, being human, try for shortcuts anyhow. But in this they're no different from the general population.

I've thought about this a lot and believe that the way for us to help YC startups make HN's front page is by giving them our best advice about what the community finds interesting vs. what tends not to work—and then sharing the same advice with everybody. In other words, do for HN what PG did with advice about startups. Everything he tells YC startups to do and not do, he published in essays that anyone can read.

That approach makes even more sense for HN, since it's in all our interests to have better stories, regardless of who posts them. I hate to see startups (YC or not) put a ton of effort into content that is unlikely to resonate with the community. There is much to say about this. Unfortunately, I am a slow writer.

[onion2k]

I was on an accelerator a few years ago (http://ignite.io/), and we all emailed each other to ask for upvotes. It still happens now except most people moved to posting on Product Hunt instead of HN. Every accelerator must surely have a similar thing going on, and if one doesn't then it's a really bad sign that companies aren't interested in helping one other.

[minimaxir]

I've seen many YC alum posts blatantly brigaded; that's what the flag button is for.

The interesting thing about the flag button is that it's more impactful than an upvote, which means that if the system is gamed and an article is vote-rigged, it makes the article more prone to be flagged and it immediately corrects itself. It's an unstable equilibrium.