Posts on the Front Page got there by being voted on when on the "newest" page, there is (almost) no other way of getting there. So everything you see on the Front Page was once taking its chances on getting noted on the "newest" page, and succeeded.
And to answer your question, I always visit "newest", and if there's something there I like, or that I think is informative, useful, or relevant, then I upvote it.
There must be others who do the same, otherwise nothing would reach the Front Page. They may be a minority, though.
No. If someone submits a link that’s been submitted recently their submission upvotes the original. I’d wager that that’s how most links hit the front page.
> If someone submits a link that’s been submitted recently their submission upvotes the original.
I have done some experiments on that and it's not always the case. There have been times when I have an old version of "newest" loaded, inadvertently submitted the same link, been taken to the existing submission, and seen that the points on the submission haven't changed. So that's not the whole story, even for that part.
> I’d wager that that’s how most links hit the front page.
This may work for some sites like big newspapers like the NYT), sites like TechCrunch, or big announcements like a new Apple product. Without any evidence, I'm sure that most (80%/90%?) of the post that reach the front page get there accumulating votes or by the "second chance" [1]
[1] I don't remember the official name. The explanation by dang was linked in other comment. I'll copy it here https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11662380 The details are part of the secret sauce, so the details may have changed.
And to answer your question, I always visit "newest", and if there's something there I like, or that I think is informative, useful, or relevant, then I upvote it.
There must be others who do the same, otherwise nothing would reach the Front Page. They may be a minority, though.