My account is 8 days old and I submitted a link earlier today.
For the first few hours everything looked normal at first — the discussion page existed, and the submission appeared in my profile.
A few hours later, the discussion page disappeared.
When I log out, the submission no longer appears in my profile at all.
There was no “dead” flag or moderation notice — it simply vanished.
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Also, when I’m logged in I still see all five of my submissions, but when I log out only four appear. The missing one is exactly the link that disappeared. If this is just a display quirk on my side and others can still see it, apologies in advance — I may simply be misunderstanding how submissions behave for new users.
The post itself was harmless (an educational piece about a visualization method for helping children understand multiplication), so I’m trying to figure out whether this is normal behavior for new accounts or a sign that the submission was auto-filtered.
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So I’d like to ask:
• Is it common for low-karma, new accounts to have submissions silently filtered out?
• Do certain titles or post formats trigger automated removal?
• Could I have unknowingly violated a guideline?
And related to that:
• Is it acceptable to repost later with a different title?
• Or is there a recommended way to avoid triggering filters as a new user?
• Would this type of post have been better as a “Show HN”?
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I’m not trying to game karma — just trying to understand how HN handles new-user submissions so I can avoid repeating the same mistake.
If this is expected behavior, I’d appreciate any insight into the underlying heuristics.
If this question itself violates any norms, please let me know — I’m still learning how HN works.
Thanks.
Yes. I don't know the exact thresholds. Usually needs an old account to click 'vouch'. These days there's often too many submissions in one hour and not enough users browsing /new to look for interesting content. I clicked 'vouch' now.
> Do certain titles or post formats trigger automated removal?
Duplicates (same title, same URL) I think, obvious spam, some domains are blocked automatically. I don't see anything applying to your submissions.
> Could I have unknowingly violated a guideline?
Not sure. Maybe submission too many new stories in the first day. It shouldn't matter.
> Would this type of post have been better as a “Show HN”?
Show HN is usually for things one can try in their browser or on their computer, something interactive. Sometimes a video qualifies because it shows what a user would see. Long content, blog posts usually don't qualify. https://news.ycombinator.com/showhn.html
> I’m still learning how HN works
10 years in, I'm still learning, too. The algorithms change.