A comment complaining this was obviously written by an AI, and the standard template is a tell. A philosophical observation about what that says about the state on online discourse. Link to the Dead Internet Wikipedia page.
Wistful nostalgia about the golden age of HN from an account created 11 months ago.
Bonus mention of a pg essay which the commenter clearly only read the title of.
Curmudgeonly comment from someone trying to sound like a wise elder about how actually all this was the norm even in the days of Usenet.
An unrelated comment added as a reply to the current top comment to get more views
A response appreciating the comment above for saving ones time.
A bad faith response that attempts to derail the conversation from the original article.
A snarky and insulting joke where the above commenter is the butt of the joke, calling attention to the bad faith response.
A modest plea for civility.
Off topic summary of the discourse regarding a pet peeve that litterally no one has.
A reminded that the riff raff can go to the “other site” when these threads occur.
A haiku comment,
Describing its own structure,
Hoping for upvotes.
A celebration that wit and good humour still exists on HN.
a passive-aggressive attack from a self-righteous hilltop
[flagged]
a comment that only make sense to people with showdead turned on
Nitpicky reply questioning the adherence of OP's comment to HN guidelines.
Self-aware meta commentary on HNers breaking HN guidelines to cite HN guidelines.
This is why I built [AI slop tool]. [Self promotion link to my vibe coded startup with no users]
A reference [1] in an attempt to go one level of self-reference further.
An xkcd link summarising large number of all points discussed
A post by dang about related posts:
A Technical Blog Post by a Big Name Expert - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5326511 - March 2013 (189 comments)
A compelling title that is cryptic enough to get you to take action on it - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43219556 - Feb 2025 (112 comments)
A Hacker News thread where every comment describes itself - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38451203 - Nov 2023 (74 comments)
A request for others to add to the list.
A post thanking dang for his tireless moderation work.
A post agreeing, adding a personal anecdote about a gentle nudge received years ago that the commenter still thinks about.
A comment trying to get a response from dang regarding the recent viral Sam Altman thread
A passive-aggressive reminder that link was already posted earlier in the thread implying you should have credited it:
A poor attempt at joining the convo too late because I don't browse /new like everyone else. No one upvotes, and I question my intelligence for the 3rd time today.
A random reply hours later, long after the post has left the front page
A second reply that happened because the article reappeared on the front page.
Motivational comment to remind OP that his life matters, even and especially, in difficult times
> Cherry-picked quote from the article cut off too early
Bad faith argument that could only be made by not reading further into the article or cutting the quote off before it answers the exact question/argument posed here.
Comment asking the previous commenter in a passive aggressive manner whether they had actually read the article, without providing any further context or counter to the argument made.
A suspiciously highly upvoted psyop disguised as lengthy diatribe authoritatively waxing poetic in a tone that conflates the thing that has been linked with everything that is wrong with humanity but that can be boiled down to empty platitudes that end up tiring the average reader and successfully prevents more people from engaging with the content.
A comment the adds nothing to the discussion but derails the conversation with an anecdotes from the writers childhood because how this topic vaguely reminds them of something kind of similar.
A simplification inquiry. Gets downvoted to death.
A comment at Hacker News which provides a nuanced critique and which gains plenty of upvotes as a lot of users agree to the comment's sentiment.
A comment disagreeing with the central argument, presenting factual evidence for why it’s mistaken. Downvoted for an hour before balancing back out to a score of 2.
An irrelevant screed about AI reminding everyone that only organic, free-range, cage free code is completely bug free and perfect every time.
A comment based on the reading of the title that could only be conceived if the commenter didn't bother to click the article at all.
A snide and vitriolic remark that observes on how the first paragraph actually addresses the concern of the person which hasn't read the article. A further continuation on this being representative of the state of modern online discourse.
A condescending put down from someone who has expertise in this area but also didn’t read the article and just felt like feeling superior this morning
A low-effort continuance of the format of these comments, demolishing the comedic premise and irreparably Redditizing the thread.
Well played
"A Technical Blog Post by a Big Name Expert" (2013)
http://bradconte.com/files/misc/HackerNewsParodyThread/
Discussion (589 points, 189 comments):
An obvious attempt to insert a link into my own vibe-coded project, in the pretense it is either relevant or related.
A question asking how your project compares to x so I don't have to do the research for myself.
A suspiciously upvoted hyperspecific critique of niche features of the project which are not relevant to most users
Thanks!!!1!!
A scathing review of the project in one or two sentences. With no help or improvements to offer.
Since I haven't actually read the article I'm just going to note that the title obviously wasn't cryptic enough to get me to take action on it; I'm not saying this to brag, the brag is totally accidental like.
A complaint about the quality of posts and the comments they elicit here, followed by an allegation that Hacker News is turning into Reddit.
> followed by an allegation that Hacker News is turning into Reddit.
A reminder that saying Hacker News is turning into Reddit is explicitly against the rules here, delivered in an unnecessarily condescending manner.
A comment making a subtle point about something discussed in the middle of the article that languishes near the bottom of the page because nobody read the full article.
A link to the HN discussion from when this was already posted here 6 months ago, possibly to be helpful, but also possibly as an attempt to admonish others for not knowing this is a repost.
An ouwardly earnest reminder that reposts are explicitly encouraged on HN, but disingenuously omitting to mention the "after 12 months" part of that.
A highly voted comment that seems insightful if you don't know the domain but amateurish if you do.
A schtick that is at least as old as the internet, revitalised for new audiences who think it is brilliantly original, to make the author look clever.
Blues Traveler wrote a song in this format in the 90s: https://youtu.be/pdz5kCaCRFM?si=qDavEW8o-VFbYLDF
It is especially effective because he is doing all the things he is describing at a high level.
A note from the original author, possibly even a minor nerd celebrity, expressing surprise at this making the HN page and gratitude for those that rediscovered and reposted it.
Praise about one their older projects that I used in the good ol’ days
An opinion about the design of the website.
Link to HN guidelines with following quote pasted below:
> Please don't complain about tangential annoyances—e.g. article or website formats, name collisions, or back-button breakage. They're too common to be interesting.
A related comment to mention the perceived good performance of the website and how the web would be much better if such simple and performant designs were more prevalent.
A second paragraph vaguely taking aim at every common framework and library used and why they're all the real fundamental problem.
Which in this case will be a complaint about the preposterously large font-size, and will be warranted iff the author is in the thread.
A comment going along with the joke of the article, but in a meta way. Thusly creating a meta context loop that needs to be addressed.
Repeat the title 3 times in the first 3 lines then again as the start of the next paragraph.
Fill the rest of the article assuming this is the readers first day on planet earth. Like, an article about a CPU architecture should start with the early history of mathematics.
A comment dismissing the author's problem as irrelevant since AI agents will soon be able to solve it for us.
A note of gratitude from a first time poster who tries to take some credit by saying they have always felt the same way
A question that was addressed in the 3rd paragraph of the article
A subtle counterpoint from paragraph seven (7)
"If Educational Videos Were Filmed Like Music Videos" - Tom Scott
It goes like this, the fourth, the fifth
The minor falls, the major liftsDeranged comment that has only a vague connection to the article topic, but allows me to explore a thought that I had beforehand, poorly formatted and stream-of-consciousnessy because this is not a blog post or even a linkedin article, it's a random comment buried in the depths of the internet and I wrote it for myself.
Continuation of the thoughts from the first paragraph and repetition, because either I forgot what I had and had not written, but also because the flow of the thought naturally brings me back to the main thesis, as if solving a mathematical problem and then going backwards to the original problem statement with a different technique for verification. Deranged poorly formatted comment that only barely connects to the topic at hand, which I only read the first part of anyways.
A comment not about the article, but rather about the perceived quality of the HN comments.
A comment about how this could be achieved using rsync instead.
A link to the infamous Dropbox comment.
A niche reference almost no one gets, except one.
A comment haughtily linking to the original appearance of said reference.
Complaining that the joke is ruined, but secretly a way to belong to the in group without actually knowing the joke beforehand
Admonishing the joke for excluding some, allegedly, particularly me, as a venue for wider grievences about feeling to be in the out group.
A comment questioning the ethics of linking to an archive that DDosed the person who doxed him.
An unnecessarily long comment that rambles on about a simple core point, that could be summed up in one sentence but has excessive detail added to ensure that everyone gets it.
(Are sentences like this akin to literary quines? The sentence describes its own purpose/function, while also fulfilling that function. It feels like constructing one should be easy, but ends up being harder than it looks.)
A short reply without much substance
A comment from a representative of the company getting raked over the coals in the article and discussion in an attempt at damage control.
A simple statement of acknowledgement.
> a quote from the article
A link to something relevant or interesting to add or support a point [1]
An opinionated comment or personal anecdote.
[1] the link from above
A reply which references neither the parent comment nor the article, but makes a strong and likely negative statement.
>> a quote from the article
> An opinionated comment or personal anecdote.
Counter opinion or added nuance. [1]
[1] A link for support or to demonstrate a counterexample.
An uncalled-for ad hominem that serves to quickly devolve the discussion in opinionated ragebait.
A comment overgeneralizing the current comments trend to then write something less conformant.
Also that: I never saw HN being so playful before.
This should be read in conjunction with a think piece[0]
[0] https://medium.com/@hondanhon/this-is-a-think-piece-78618692...
An expression of surprise and appreciation that the author, an expert in his field, is actually a HN participant.
A comment from someone who knows or knew the author or was part of the project sharing details that makes readers feel like they've just been handed backstage passes.
Anyone struggle with the large font size? I can only consume about 2 lines, maybe three lines at that size before I struggle with tracking.
The article itself was in fact delightful once I zoomed out a bunch.
Reminds me of Schizopolis movie (by Steven Soderbergh):
>Fletcher Munson: [sunnily, on homecoming] Generic greeting!
>Mrs. Munson: [warmly] Generic greeting returned!
>[they kiss and chuckle at each other]
>Fletcher Munson: Imminent sustenance.
>Mrs. Munson: Overly dramatic statement regarding upcoming meal.
>Fletcher Munson: Oooh! False reaction indicating hunger and excitement!
Reminds? In a way that's basically a ripoff of the idea just applied to a different topic.
Can I also post a question that is actually answering itself?
Downvotes. Greyed out text. For no explicable reason.
Allegation of severe HN censorship. Further speculation on the political motives inside Y Combinator.
a condescending note about not commenting about votes on comments
https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html
a secondary comment explicitly explaining why this comment’s author downvoted the parent.
[Breaking the Wall:
That wasn’t a comment about up/downvotes. It was a comment without up/downvotes.]
Oh. What? How did I get here? No comment here.
The best part about this is that the title "A compelling title that is cryptic enough to get you to take action on it" is perfectly self-descriptive.
A personal anecdote which was on my mind as soon as I read the title but doesn't relate to the actual topic at hand.
A comment pointing out that this submission and/or comment section break the HN rules, which are selectively ignored by the VC mods.
The countless times I've read an article that starts with the description of a researcher drinking their morning coffee...
A sentence remarking this concept was implemented in a different media.
----
Title of the song
Naive expression of love
Reluctance to accept that you are gone
Request to turn back time and rectify my wrongs
Repetition of the title of the song
I guess I am too honest to go down the click-bait title stuff. I would love to get more traffic too my web site, but not this way. I prefer to write up interesting hardware of software projects, but i'm in the middle of writing another sci-fi epic and there are only so many projects you can juggle :-)
Unrelated comment nudging people to use nostr instead of the centralized established solution.
An unhelpful comment left by a user who only read a few sentences of the blog post.
Charlie Brooker's How to Report the News: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aHun58mz3vI
> with reference to original text written in the blog
some random thoughts on it and facts about it being literally infinitesimally low chance that this would ever occur irrespective of the fact that somehow it did
An opposing comment that is vaguely on-topic only so that the commenter can talk about themselves and their n=1 experience that they incorrectly extrapolate onto everyone else in the world
A comment commenting all the comments that do not comment on themselves.
A commenter pointing out that the article is implicitly US-centric
A tedious response highlighting that YC is a US investment group and that US-centric articles should be expected.
A complaint asking what this has to do with hackers or hacking.
A mildly annoyed reply quoting the Hacker News Guidelines to point out that:
> On-Topic: Anything that good hackers would find interesting. That includes more than hacking and startups.
Comment that starts a completely unrelated rabbit trail.
600 descendant comments that obscure the main thread.
A comment that takes a second to realize it’s a troll.
A shitty comment that pisses people off enough that it gets flagged to death
<insert favorite bigoted insult here>
A comment noting that the submitter has posted this exact link multiple times in the last six months.
A comment explaining that this has long been a solved problem in some other language or domain
A comment noting the article is from YYYY and asking if the mods can add (YYYY) to the title.
A link to a project that does the exact same thing, except it’s built with Rust
I liked this as much as;
Selective Study Confirms Already Held Prejudice.
It makes a good companion to;
Outlier Study Upends Conventional Wisdom.
This seems like a useful reference when asking AI to create content for you, despite the irony
Orange reddit is ded
Very Meta and very cool. Well written
Kneejerk contrarian response
A link to a web archived version of the paywalled original.
Tu caca, Derrida?
ramon156 12 minutes ago | unvote | prev | next [–]
A niche reference almost no one gets, except one
An appreciative comment making the original niche poster feel seen.
Now showing at a theater near you! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=602xKn3G1TI
I for one am not playing along
I did enjoy this, though. Even the title worked.
"titlemaxxing" / "clickbaitmaxxing"
A weak argument which suggests there is a strong parallel to a famous 20th century expansionist totalitarian.
Full-throated denunciation of anyone who can't see the marionette strings of Big Conspiracy behind all of this.
A false dichotomy that segments typical replies into one of two groups.
Group 1: A thinly veiled straw man that buckets everyone I disagree with, along with an attempt to appear as if I'm being unbiased
Group 2: The group I put myself in and provide better arguments for why this perspective is correct.
Vague motte and bailey statement that gives me plausible deniability when someone criticizes my analysis.
A thoughtful witty self-effacing on point comment. Which for some reason gets no upvotes. No downvotes. No follow up comments.
...sheesh.
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A heavily downvoted comment from a new account registered specifically to comment on this link.
Feels similar with cold email.I used to think it was mostly about better copy or subject lines, but lately it feels like timing matters way more. Same message, different moment, completely different outcome.
Have you seen cases where timing mattered more than the message itself?
In other words, clickbait.
Fox News used to be awful in this respect, with ledes such as "(Important thing) happens in (unnamed city)". Now they name the city. So that trick apparently backfired. It seems to have died out, along with "One weird trick..." articles.
New York Times opinion articles, though, have become worse. Today, "This May Be the Most Important Medical Story of the Decade". It's not.
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