This has happened to me before as well. I have no proof at all, but I suspect that certain users just get straight in and can get to the front page with only a few upvotes, while other users (like myself) can get 15 upvotes in an hour or two and never make it above 75.
Would love a little more transparency from HN. I know it will enable manipulators but it would also help people like us not feel as shafted (which has really disincentivized me against submitting stories).
The user that submitted this story has a pretty new account with modest karma and only 5 stories submitted. Odd that they would have some kind of special permission implemented by YC. On the other hand, all 5 of their submitted stories have pretty high number of upvotes. Maybe they know something about HN clickbait and the best time to submit stories? Maybe they're one of a batch of accounts of someone who does have some special top-level exceptions? Pretty strange.
I've been lightly submitting personal work to reddit and hacker news for years and it's pretty obvious that post title, time of day, and day of week are the primary driving factors.
Would love a little more transparency from HN. I know it will enable manipulators but it would also help people like us not feel as shafted (which has really disincentivized me against submitting stories).