HN seems dead compared to say 10-15 years ago • Hacker News Board

Re: HN seems dead compared to say 10-15 years ago

#31

Post by dang » Tue, Jun 09, 2026, 2:06 AM UTC

GistNoesis wrote: post #25

dang wrote: post #7

This perception has been around for almost as long as HN itself: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12213869 (Aug 2016) Examples are legion. Here are a couple others: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=32229249 (July 2022) https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23920281 (July 2020) I don't know of any way to objectively measure this. I do know that there's a strong bias to believe that things were better in the pas…

When we look when logged-in at https://news.ycombinator.com/shownew (the input pipeline for all ShowHN) at any given time now more than half the page is either dead or flagged (I did the experiment now and it was 18/30 flagged or dead), then the rest of the page (100%) were AI related or claude generated. Show HN, being used by people to share the cool things they create was an important part of creating of a communi…

If people would read the site guidelines (https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html) and not post generated text with their Show HNs, they'd do a lot better. The community is clear about not wanting to read that.

Re: HN seems dead compared to say 10-15 years ago

#32

Post by dang » Tue, Jun 09, 2026, 2:09 AM UTC

AnimalMuppet wrote: post #17

dang wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Isn't that how every major tech wave works? "Thing, but for $X" is what everyone was doing when $X was personal computing, the web, mobile.

Sure, but how many of those were YC-worthy?

"$Foo for $Bar" has always been a common formula for startups that are just getting going, including in YC. I think you guys are rewriting the past a bit here.

Re: HN seems dead compared to say 10-15 years ago

#33

Post by dang » Tue, Jun 09, 2026, 2:09 AM UTC

Bender wrote: post #13

dang wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's a transitional situation and will be that way for quite a while. We're doing what we can. For example, the measures described here have stemmed the runaway growth in low-quality Show HNs: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47346516 (March 2026) https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47300772 (March 2026) There's still a quality problem, but (a) that's always the case, (b) at least we aren't drowning, and (c) the…

I see others also mentioned the voting ring detector. I think they're correct that something needs adjustment, but I don't know how it works exactly so it's hard to suggest thresholds. The patterns I am observing is that the LLM generated clones will get instantly upvoted multiple times I assume by other warmed up LLM accounts . Back in the days of running phpBB I would mitigate some of that with ranks and I assume t…

The LLM posts that I'm looking at are definitely coming from normal-user IP addresses. There are exceptions, but the rate of those doesn't seem higher than usual. Outright bot/agent posting, as far as we can tell (and we may be wrong!) seems to have down-ticked since the flurry earlier this year (openclaw and so on).

My gut feeling is that this issue isn't much affected by voting rings, which is too bad, because we have a lot of experience with those. If all that was needed here was another round of work on the ring detector, I would be less worried.

It's a moving and blurry picture, but judging by the users that tomhow and I interact with—which is a lot of users! though still only a small sample—the overwhelming majority of these posts are coming from real people with good intentions, who have no idea of the mismatch between what they're posting and the culture of the community.

Re: HN seems dead compared to say 10-15 years ago

#34

Post by akkartik » Tue, Jun 09, 2026, 2:47 AM UTC

dang wrote: post #7

This perception has been around for almost as long as HN itself: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12213869 (Aug 2016) Examples are legion. Here are a couple others: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=32229249 (July 2022) https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23920281 (July 2020) I don't know of any way to objectively measure this. I do know that there's a strong bias to believe that things were better in the pas…

Found an older one, from 2011 :D

https://web.archive.org/web/20110225020957/http://al3x.net/2...

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2252152

---

Oh, oh, oh, 2009: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=480831

---

2008: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=259276

The birth of HN is lost in the mists of time, but our best guess is it happened about 3 months before it started going downhill.

Re: HN seems dead compared to say 10-15 years ago

#35

Post by dang » Tue, Jun 09, 2026, 4:49 AM UTC

akkartik wrote: post #34

dang wrote: post #7

This perception has been around for almost as long as HN itself: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12213869 (Aug 2016) Examples are legion. Here are a couple others: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=32229249 (July 2022) https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23920281 (July 2020) I don't know of any way to objectively measure this. I do know that there's a strong bias to believe that things were better in the pas…

Found an older one, from 2011 :D https://web.archive.org/web/20110225020957/http://al3x.net/2... https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2252152 --- Oh, oh, oh, 2009: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=480831 --- 2008: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=259276 The birth of HN is lost in the mists of time, but our best guess is it happened about 3 months before it started going downhill.

2008 is good! Now I want to know what was the first comment saying HN was going downhill.

A few years ago I did a thorough search for "HN is turning into Reddit" posts so I could link them at the bottom of https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html. These 4 predate your July 2008 link (the first one by only 6 days):

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=253657 (July 2008)

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=66057 (Oct 2007)

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=60767 (Sept 2007)

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13852 (April 2007)

Here are some more I found:

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1361148 (May 2010)

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=259276 (July 2008)

Ask YC: HN submissions feels like submissions on reddit post sale, do you guys feel the same way? - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=225134 - June 2008 (10 comments) (How do you separate (1) HN is going downhill, from (2) the world is going downhill, from (3) people always think things are going downhill? It seems hopelessly undecideable. (And yet, being human, I do think that HN is going somewhat downhill. Relative to the world though? not sure)

Re: HN seems dead compared to say 10-15 years ago

#36

Post by akkartik » Tue, Jun 09, 2026, 5:18 AM UTC

dang wrote: post #35

akkartik wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Found an older one, from 2011 :D https://web.archive.org/web/20110225020957/http://al3x.net/2... https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2252152 --- Oh, oh, oh, 2009: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=480831 --- 2008: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=259276 The birth of HN is lost in the mists of time, but our best guess is it happened about 3 months before it started going downhill.

2008 is good! Now I want to know what was the first comment saying HN was going downhill. A few years ago I did a thorough search for "HN is turning into Reddit" posts so I could link them at the bottom of https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html . These 4 predate your July 2008 link (the first one by only 6 days): https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=253657 (July 2008) https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=66…

HN has always had sucky bits, just like human nature. Everyone who thinks it's going downhill is just one of today's 10,000 [1] to discover some sucky corner of human nature.

I'd say the world has gone downhill much faster and is making HN look good in comparison.

[1] https://xkcd.com/1053

Re: HN seems dead compared to say 10-15 years ago

#37

Post by mradek » Tue, Jun 09, 2026, 6:28 AM UTC

byoung2 wrote: post #4

david927 wrote: post #2

HN is a mirror on the tech world -- which is dead. There is dearth of original ideas, generally. There are no cool startups, no investment, nothing happening.

I agree there. Back in 2009 I used to be excited by each new YC batch. There were fresh new ideas like Dropbox, AirBnB, Instacart. I feel like there were cool stories around those startups, like Drew losing a thumbdrive and coming up with the idea for DropBox, or the AirBnB marketing hack with the cereal, or Instacart's founder having beer delivered during the YC interview. I can't think of any recent YC startups tha…

> It seems inevitable that some solo founder will soon be able to build a unicorn with no investment and no employees.

I know I'm no ivy grad or some hot shot, but this is my goal. Although I have a small team that I want to build up (they're fresh) because they're passionate about the problem space.

Re: HN seems dead compared to say 10-15 years ago

#38

Post by mradek » Tue, Jun 09, 2026, 6:30 AM UTC

I've only been here a few years. I remember when it was a lot of crypto and no-code. Then it shifted to AI.

I think it is just the ebb and flow of the zeitgeist reflected here.

Not sure what the future holds, but I'm looking forward to the next wave after AI.

Re: HN seems dead compared to say 10-15 years ago

#39

Post by d--b » Tue, Jun 09, 2026, 8:54 AM UTC

dang wrote: post #7

This perception has been around for almost as long as HN itself: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12213869 (Aug 2016) Examples are legion. Here are a couple others: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=32229249 (July 2022) https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23920281 (July 2020) I don't know of any way to objectively measure this. I do know that there's a strong bias to believe that things were better in the pas…

I'm not one to fetishicize the past, but to be honest there has been quite a bad turn lately.

COVID, Trump's second election, Musk turning into the Bond villain he was cut out to be, Altman's good guy mask melting down slowly, the AI bubble sucking up all the money and making developers anxious about their future.

One shouldn't wonder why the mood is gloomier.

At least we have Mark Rober still out there working for the greater good, but I think it starts to transpire that things are starting to weigh on him too.

Re: HN seems dead compared to say 10-15 years ago

#40

Post by unconed » Tue, Jun 09, 2026, 10:45 AM UTC

brudgers wrote: post #29

I used the HN |Past| feature to go back 15 years. https://news.ycombinator.com/front?day=2011-06-08 There are three articles about Steve Jobs. To me LLM's are a more intellectually interesting cargo-cult than that cult of personality cargo-cult, but YMMV.

In 2011 the iPhone was ~4 years old and iPads were ascendant as the only tablet game in town. Google was still playing catch up with Android as a knock-off, having just debuted Android Honeycomb.

The actual topics are:

- the Apple campus that is still unique today

- a rectification of an urban legend about Jobs and Knuth

- a clip showing Jobs was prescient in the late 90s about personalized cloud tech

Dismissing the focus on Jobs as a cult of personality is a mistake, he was simply very influential, and so was Apple at this time.

Meanwhile LLMs are the antithesis of the Jobsian style: just cramming pirated data into a model and reselling it as fake intelligence without real source attribution.