1. They might be really new. This is how most posts go from 3-4 votes to 100+. Few people visit /newest, so posts either get a lot of points over time (less common) or briefly make the front page and "take off."
2. dang emails people who submitted items that were good but didn't take off and then puts them into a system that pushes them to the front page at a certain time to see if they would work once there. This has happened to me a couple of times.
2. dang emails people who submitted items that were good but didn't take off and then puts them into a system that pushes them to the front page at a certain time to see if they would work once there. This has happened to me a couple of times.