Prior Art Debates

Comments debating whether a featured technology, feature, idea, or event was truly novel or had existing precedents, prior versions, or was done before.

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3,047
Comments
20
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#4932
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Activity Over Time

2007
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2009
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2010
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2011
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Keywords

HN previous predates wasn prior art weren things mentioned predecessor question did singularity way actually

Sample Comments

Agebor • Nov 4, 2020 • View on HN

That perhaps it was already done before...

nusl • Jan 18, 2026 • View on HN

This was possible before, though

_3ex7 • May 14, 2010 • View on HN

Same, but a long time ago (before it was cool to do so)

tonyhart7 • Jun 5, 2025 • View on HN

wait they didn't do that before???

graeme • Nov 26, 2018 • View on HN

They did, it was something else before

luckydata • Dec 19, 2015 • View on HN

there were a few before but not many.

higherpurpose • May 12, 2015 • View on HN

Wasn't this already known (or presumed) before?

gberger • Dec 14, 2019 • View on HN

Why was this not a thing before?

globular-toast • Dec 31, 2020 • View on HN

It's been around before anyone was suggesting to join too...

marcosdumay • Jan 14, 2025 • View on HN

Wasn't that the previous one?