Is Show HN dead? No, but it's drowning

Post by verdverm » Tue, Feb 17, 2026, 11:42 AM UTC

marginalia_nu wrote: post #10

I don't actually mind AI-aided development, a tool is a tool and should be used if you find it useful, but I think the vibe coded show HN projects are overall pretty boring. They generally don't have a lot of work put into them, and as a result, the author (pilot?) hasn't generally thought too much about the problem space, and so there isn't really much of a discussion to be had. The cool part about pre-AI show HN is…

Post by m4tthumphrey » Tue, Feb 17, 2026, 11:47 AM UTC

wewewedxfgdf wrote: post #53

nkrisc wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I don't mind much though - I love that programming is being democratized and no longer only for the arcane wizards of the back room. Programming has long been democratized. It’s been decades now where you could learn to program without spending a dollar on a university degree or even a bootcamp. Programming knowledge has been freely available for a long time to those who wanted to learn.

It's better if you don't have to learn to program to make applications. In the future it will seem very strange that there was a time when people had to write every line of code manually. It will simply be accepted that the computers write computer programs for you, no one will think twice about it.

Post by verdverm » Tue, Feb 17, 2026, 11:49 AM UTC

wewewedxfgdf wrote: post #4

I am a major advocate for AI assisted development. Having said that, it used to feel part of an exclusive club to have the skills and motivation to put a finished project on HN. For me, posting a Show HN was a huge deal - usually done after years of development - remember that - when development of something worthwhile took years and was written entirely by hand? I don't mind much though - I love that programming is…

Post by krapp » Tue, Feb 17, 2026, 11:50 AM UTC

Shank wrote: post #30

I've long wanted something like Blog HN as a way to post things things that I wrote without feeling guilty of submitting my own site. Things that authors themselves write and post are often a good signal. But this should be completely separate from any new products, etc. I think that Show HN should be used sparingly. It feels like collective community abuse of it will lead to people filtering them out mentally, if no…

Post by verdverm » Tue, Feb 17, 2026, 11:52 AM UTC

dgellow wrote: post #39

conartist6 wrote: post #31

The small indie developer ain't dead yet, and from where I sit you could drive a star destroyer through the gaps in what software has been built so far. It's only that you can't claim any of the top shelf prizes by vibe coding

Vibe coding as a term is really annoying. At what point does a project stops being considered vibe coded? If I spent a year iterating on a design and implementation using Claude code, in a domain I’m an expert in, will that still be considered vibe coded?