The article is for posts. Regarding comments, click on "new" (https://news.ycombinator.com/newest) and be one of the first to comment. Hacker News doesn't promote newer comments.
More important: Make an interesting article. In particular, a few nice relevant graphics like in the article are useful. (But I don't like word clouds. The other graphics are nice.)
> Posting a story on Hacker News is like flipping a coin. Your story's likelihood of not getting upvoted is about 50%
My experience puts it more at a 10% chance than a 50-50.
My overall anecdotal learning is that nothing matters, and you never know. I’d remove all this data-driven hype about how to post and succeed on Hacker News and just have fun letting people love the stories you post.
Finally, remove emotion from your activities. Just be here for the fun — the comments, the people.
Hacker News is a fun gathering of the best technical and curious people worldwide. I have seen my comments upvoted, talked about, and also downvoted to oblivion with scorn and ridicule. I read them, laugh or ignore them, and sometimes engage in exciting conversations.
