HN Submission Guidelines

Comments repeatedly quote and debate the Hacker News guidelines on what constitutes on-topic content, particularly 'anything that gratifies one’s intellectual curiosity' versus off-topic subjects like politics, crime, or sports.

➡️ Stable 0.6x Other
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#7545
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Keywords

www.whdh EFF US IMO HN YC TL HardyLueng DR newsguidelines.html intellectual curiosity topic intellectual curiosity hackers guidelines interesting new hacking sports startups

Sample Comments

RazerM Sep 2, 2013 View on HN

From the HN Guidelines [1]:> On-Topic: Anything that good hackers would find interesting. That includes more than hacking and startups. If you had to reduce it to a sentence, the answer might be: anything that gratifies one's intellectual curiosity.> Off-Topic: Most stories about politics, or crime, or sports, unless they're evidence of some interesting new phenomenon. Videos of pratfalls or disasters, or cute animal pictures. If they'd cover it on TV news, it&#

ColinWright Nov 1, 2025 View on HN

I rarely post this, I usually just let things go. But quoting from the guidelines[0]:On-Topic: Anything that good hackers would find interesting. That includes more than hacking and startups. If you had to reduce it to a sentence, the answer might be: anything that gratifies one's intellectual curiosity.Off-Topic: Most stories about politics, or crime, or sports, or celebrities, unless they're evidence of some interesting new phenomenon. Videos of pratfalls or disaster

defrost Oct 10, 2023 View on HN

Hacker News Guidelines https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.htmlOn-Topic: Anything that good hackers would find interesting. That includes more than hacking and startups. If you had to reduce it to a sentence, the answer might be: anything that gratifies one's intellectual curiosity.Off-Topic: Most stories about politics, or crime, or sports, or celebrities, unless they're e

pests May 14, 2020 View on HN

If it's interesting, it's on topic. HN is not just tech or startup. Here's the guidelines:https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html"On-Topic: Anything that good hackers would find interesting. That includes more than hacking and startups. If you had to reduce it to a sentence, the answer might be: anything that gratifies one's intellectual curiosity.&q

byoung2 Aug 1, 2020 View on HN

From the guidelines[1]:On-Topic: Anything that good hackers would find interesting. That includes more than hacking and startups. If you had to reduce it to a sentence, the answer might be: anything that gratifies one's intellectual curiosity.Off-Topic: Most stories about politics, or crime, or sports, unless they're evidence of some interesting new phenomenon. Videos of pratfalls or disasters, or cute animal pictures. If they'd cover it on TV news, it's probably off

ColinWright May 27, 2024 View on HN

Quoting:On-Topic: Anything that good hackers would find interesting. That includes more than hacking and startups. If you had to reduce it to a sentence, the answer might be: anything that gratifies one's intellectual curiosity.Off-Topic: Most stories about politics, or crime, or sports, or celebrities, unless they're evidence of some interesting new phenomenon. Videos of pratfalls or disasters, or cute animal pictures. If they'd cover it on TV news, it's probably off-t

metric10 Apr 27, 2015 View on HN

From the Hacker News Guidelines:On-Topic: Anything that good hackers would find interesting. That includes more than hacking and startups. If you had to reduce it to a sentence, the answer might be: anything that gratifies one's intellectual curiosity.Off-Topic: Most stories about politics, or crime, or sports, unless they're evidence of some interesting new phenomenon. Videos of pratfalls or disasters, or cute animal pictures. If they'd cover it on TV news, it's probab

zadjii Apr 30, 2020 View on HN

According to the [site guidelines](https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html):> Hacker News Guidelines> What to Submit> On-Topic: Anything that good hackers would find interesting. That includes more than hacking and startups. If you had to reduce it to a sentence, the answer might be: anything that gratifies one's intellectual curiosity.> Off-Topic: Mos

adamcharnock Jul 9, 2020 View on HN

See the guidelines[1] which define on/off topic as:> On-Topic: Anything that good hackers would find interesting. That includes more than hacking and startups. If you had to reduce it to a sentence, the answer might be: anything that gratifies one's intellectual curiosity.> Off-Topic: Most stories about politics, or crime, or sports, unless they're evidence of some interesting new phenomenon. Videos of pratfalls or disasters, or cute animal pictures. If they'd co

softwaredoug Sep 28, 2020 View on HN

Specifically you’re supposed to flag anything not within the guidelines[1]:> On-Topic: Anything that good hackers would find interesting. That includes more than hacking and startups. If you had to reduce it to a sentence, the answer might be: anything that gratifies one's intellectual curiosity.> Off-Topic: Most stories about politics, or crime, or sports, unless they're evidence of some interesting new phenomenon. Videos of pratfalls or disasters, or cute animal pictures.