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Home > Reviews > Hacker News
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Review: Hacker News  |
| Product type: |
News site (for criminals, I assumed) |
Maker: |
Y Combinator, which I gather is a company, or a letter |
| Price: |
Free, and I believe them, which is a first |
Date reviewed: |
08/25/2026 |
| Tested on: |
The other computer (Denise's laptop, Windows 10, the browser it came with) |
What I Was Told This Was
The site is called Hacker News. It does not describe itself further, which I respected until I thought about it. A hacker, in my experience, is a person who gets into your computer and takes the files. Kyle sent me the address and said "you'll like this one." I assumed it was a threat.
What Happened
I'll be frank: I was prepared to give this site a zero (0) and unplug the computer. I did not.
The site came up immediately. There was an orange bar across the top, and under it, a list. Words on a page. A table. Verdana. Nothing moved. Nothing asked for my email. I sat back in the chair. I want it on the record that the site is roughly the same width as mine, and I had it first.
The list was thirty (30) headlines with numbers next to them. I clicked the first headline. It took me to a different site entirely, which was somebody else's, and had pictures. I went back. I clicked the second headline. Also a different site. I now understood: Hacker News is a list of other sites. It is a site that points at sites. In the document-transmission industry we called that a cover sheet, and we did not charge for it.
Next to each headline is a small grey triangle pointing up. There is no label on it. I put the arrow on it and nothing came up to tell me what it was for. I clicked it anyway, against my principles, to see. It asked me to log in. So the triangle is for members. I do not know what it does. Nobody does, as far as I can tell. I have decided it is decorative.
Each headline says how many "points" it has. I could not find out how a headline gets a point or what a point is worth or where you go to spend them. Kyle says you "just get them." That is how he described the Wi-Fi, and I have never seen either one.
I looked for the hacking. There was none that I could find. Several headlines were about a man who had built his own toaster, which I read in full and found reasonable. One was a list of reasons a program was slow. One was titled "Ask HN," so I did. I typed my question into the search box at the bottom, which is where the questions go, and pressed Enter. It gave me a list of other people's questions. Mine was not among them. I have not been answered. It has been four days.
Below every headline there is a very small line of grey writing which I did not read, on principle, and because it was very small and grey.
At the top there is a link that says "new," one that says "past," one that says "comments," and one that says "show." I clicked "show." It showed me more headlines. I clicked "past." It asked me for a date. I gave it my birthday. It had headlines for my birthday. None of them mentioned me, which I found unlikely but let go.
There is also a link that says "jobs." I have a job. It is this.
A Note on Denise
Denise asked, from the doorway, what I was reading. I said it was a list of other sites and had no content of its own. She leaned over and clicked the small grey writing under a headline, the part that said "214 comments," and the screen filled with several hundred people disagreeing with each other about the toaster. I had not known that was there. I read it for an hour and a half. There was a man in there who said the toaster was fine and everyone was overcomplicating it. I would have shaken his hand. Then he said something about "the UX" and I closed the window. Denise did not say the site was ridiculous. She stayed to finish the part about the toaster, and I am recording that as the same thing.
Verdict
Hacker News is a newspaper that is only the headlines, with a triangle. A real newspaper has the article under the headline, on the same page, and when you are done you can line the bird cage with it. You cannot line anything with Hacker News. I have not tried, and I do not need to.
I will be honest about the score. It loaded. It has words on the buttons. It did not ask me to take a tour, and it did not once try to sell me anything, which after twenty-two (22) years of doing this I did not think was still possible. I was prepared to give it four (4).
Then I read the name again. There is no hacking on it. It said hacker. I looked. A site should be what it says it is, and I am taking one (1) off for the name, and that is final.
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Reader Mail on this review (2 entries from the Guestbook)
"The grey triangle is an upvote. You gave a website a 3 out of 10 for not containing hacking. I upvoted it, whatever you think that means." – pg_fan_2009, Palo Alto, CA, 08/25/2026
Lyle responds: Thank you. I do not know what it means, but I accept it, and I would like it in writing.
"Lyle, somebody posted your Slack review to Hacker News this morning. That's why your site went down. It wasn't the weather." – Greg, Dayton, OH, 08/25/2026
Lyle responds: Thank you Greg. It was the weather. I have also unplugged the server as a precaution, so it was both.
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