Cool idea, although it might turn into a Catch-22: once people know what the best times to submit are, those will no longer be the best times to submit. =)
You should label and explain the axes and sliders. I have no idea what the numbers mean, or what the "pickup ratio" is.
Also, instead of linking "bad" below the chart, you should make it bold and link the word "submit" instead. I thought clicking on "bad" would take me to an explanation, not the HN submit page.
Not a catch-22, it's a game, in the game-theoretic sense.
You're choosing a best-response to everyone else's selected post time. Publishing this post data should make the system approach equilibrium more quickly, where in equilibrium the best post time should be fairly evenly distributed.
That would be a good thing for HN, albeit to the detriment of the app in question and its early adopters. But even if there was less ability to "game"/"hack" the system, a public service like this is necessary to ensure that situation remains.
I think it's more related to North American lunch breaks and end-of-the-day? I'm on HN now because I take Fridays off for research, but otherwise not much time during the week except for breaks and after hours. I'm not sure how that will change knowing something we all know..
I agree with the emphasis (link) on "bad"/"good" being confising, and agree with moving the link to "submit", and actually having an explination behind bad/good.
Thanks.. I saw that mentioned in another comment as well. When I first went to the site I didn't see any affordances indicating that that graph was clickable.
You should label and explain the axes and sliders. I have no idea what the numbers mean, or what the "pickup ratio" is.
Also, instead of linking "bad" below the chart, you should make it bold and link the word "submit" instead. I thought clicking on "bad" would take me to an explanation, not the HN submit page.