Ask HN: Please restrict new accounts from posting • Hacker News Board

Re: Ask HN: Please restrict new accounts from posting

#551

Post by plagiat0r » Fri, Mar 13, 2026, 2:23 AM UTC

dang wrote: post #34

We're going to at least restrict Show HNs for a while. I do think this is relevant though: "HN can't be immune from macro trends" - https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=true&que...

Unpopular opinion: Maybe the way to go is to create a separate Show HNs only for bots and put some instructions for the bots to follow, identify themselves and give them separate category. Similar to moltbook. If we can't stop it, maybe we could contain it in a dedicated space.

I'm not a fan of moltbots / openclaws (and any clones that popped up in the last moth). I don't use them and try to discourage their use. That being said, millions of them are running anyway...

Re: Ask HN: Please restrict new accounts from posting

#552

Post by dang » Fri, Mar 13, 2026, 3:44 AM UTC

plagiat0r wrote: post #551

dang wrote: post #34

We're going to at least restrict Show HNs for a while. I do think this is relevant though: "HN can't be immune from macro trends" - https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=true&que...

Unpopular opinion: Maybe the way to go is to create a separate Show HNs only for bots and put some instructions for the bots to follow, identify themselves and give them separate category. Similar to moltbook. If we can't stop it, maybe we could contain it in a dedicated space. I'm not a fan of moltbots / openclaws (and any clones that popped up in the last moth). I don't use them and try to discourage their use. Tha…

I doubt that people would respect it, so we'd still have the problem of distinguishing wheat from chaff in the 'human' section, plus also have a 'bot' bucket to maintain.

Re: Ask HN: Please restrict new accounts from posting

#553

Post by jhyolm » Sun, Mar 15, 2026, 2:30 PM UTC

dang wrote: post #34

We're going to at least restrict Show HNs for a while. I do think this is relevant though: "HN can't be immune from macro trends" - https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=true&que...

Looking through the comments here, I don't see any information on what is required to be considered taking "some time to get to know the community and become a good contributor."

Re: Ask HN: Please restrict new accounts from posting

#554

Post by jhyolm » Sun, Mar 15, 2026, 2:40 PM UTC

AussieWog93 wrote: post #266

Reddit has tried this approach and, IMO, it's failed. A new human user will spend actual time creating a thoughtful and helpful post, only to be greeted by "sorry, your post has been removed by automod because you don't meet criteria". They get disheartened and walk away forever. The spammers, on the other hand, know how the rules work and so will just build their bots to work around this (waiting 30days, farming kar…

Yeah, basically my experience right now. Been a software engineer for fifteen years, working on a project for five months, very excited about it. Go to post it here, and I'm met with: "We're temporarily restricting Show HNs."

No information about what threshold I need to cross, what the requirements are, what I need to do to post my project.

Very cool.

Re: Ask HN: Please restrict new accounts from posting

#555

Post by dang » Sun, Mar 15, 2026, 5:59 PM UTC

jhyolm wrote: post #554

AussieWog93 wrote: post #266

Reddit has tried this approach and, IMO, it's failed. A new human user will spend actual time creating a thoughtful and helpful post, only to be greeted by "sorry, your post has been removed by automod because you don't meet criteria". They get disheartened and walk away forever. The spammers, on the other hand, know how the rules work and so will just build their bots to work around this (waiting 30days, farming kar…

Yeah, basically my experience right now. Been a software engineer for fifteen years, working on a project for five months, very excited about it. Go to post it here, and I'm met with: "We're temporarily restricting Show HNs." No information about what threshold I need to cross, what the requirements are, what I need to do to post my project. Very cool.

https://news.ycombinator.com/showlim contains such information. It's vague, I know, but that's because we want people to be genuine community members, which is not a checklist process.

Re: Ask HN: Please restrict new accounts from posting

#556

Post by dang » Sun, Mar 15, 2026, 6:03 PM UTC

jhyolm wrote: post #553

dang wrote: post #34

We're going to at least restrict Show HNs for a while. I do think this is relevant though: "HN can't be immune from macro trends" - https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=true&que...

Looking through the comments here, I don't see any information on what is required to be considered taking "some time to get to know the community and become a good contributor."

That's because it's not primarily a technical task. If we specified technical criteria X, Y, Z, all that would happen is they'd end up on an LLM checklist somewhere.

What's needed is to get to know this place a little and how it operates, which means taking the time to poke around and explore. I realize HN is rather cryptic at first, but it doesn't take that long for one's eyes to adjust.

Re: Ask HN: Please restrict new accounts from posting

#557

Post by pangon » Mon, Mar 16, 2026, 12:27 PM UTC

I've been a long-time HN lurker. Like many others, I never created an account to participate and mostly just read without posting.

Today, for the first time, I actually have something I'd like to contribute: a personal open-source project I built with the community in mind and wanted to share.

But if I create a new account, I get redirected to https://news.ycombinator.com/showlim I also have an older account from 2021 (the one I'm using to comment right now) that I barely used, and that one doesn't let me post to Show HN either. It just says: "Sorry, your account isn't able to submit this site".

I understand the need to limit spam. But shouldn't mechanisms like upvotes, shownew, and showdead already help with that? A full block like this seems to hit not just spammers, but also lurkers and new users who are trying to contribute for the first time.

To me, that risks making the community feel more closed than it should.

Re: Ask HN: Please restrict new accounts from posting

#558

Post by mparas » Wed, Mar 18, 2026, 12:19 PM UTC

dang wrote: post #34

We're going to at least restrict Show HNs for a while. I do think this is relevant though: "HN can't be immune from macro trends" - https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=true&que...

I understand that something needed to be done. Still can't help but say that it's a pity. A blanket ban on new users posting doesn't seem right. There are many people like me who "followed" HN for a long time, but then decided to create an account recently to post and ask for feedback, only to see the submission get blocked.

Re: Ask HN: Please restrict new accounts from posting

#559

Post by dang » Wed, Mar 18, 2026, 10:02 PM UTC

mparas wrote: post #558

dang wrote: post #34

We're going to at least restrict Show HNs for a while. I do think this is relevant though: "HN can't be immune from macro trends" - https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=true&que...

I understand that something needed to be done. Still can't help but say that it's a pity. A blanket ban on new users posting doesn't seem right. There are many people like me who "followed" HN for a long time, but then decided to create an account recently to post and ask for feedback, only to see the submission get blocked.

There's no blanket ban on new users posting, and even when there's a bar, it's a low one.

I hear you that it's not great for users who are genuine HN readers but haven't posted before. I wish we had a better idea what to do for those cases!