HN Downvote Misuse
📉 0.3xComments debate the proper purpose of downvotes on Hacker News, arguing they should target low-quality or off-topic content rather than mere disagreements, often citing the site's FAQ.
Rejecting Generalizations
📉 0.5xCommenters assert personal differences in preferences, values, or behaviors, countering assumptions that everyone wants, does, or thinks the same about the discussed topic.
Software Bugs Inevitability
➡️ 0.6xThe cluster focuses on the widespread acceptance that all software contains bugs and imperfections, with commenters expressing sarcasm, frustration, or resignation about unrealistic expectations of bug-free software.
Correlation vs Causation
📉 0.4xComments focus on reminding others that correlation does not imply causation, critiquing causal assumptions based on observed correlations in the parent article or discussion.
Google+ Criticism
📉 0.2xDiscussions center on Google+'s perceived failures, forced integrations into other Google products like YouTube, low adoption compared to Facebook, and debates over its usefulness and design.
Corporate Hypocrisy Criticism
📉 0.4xThe cluster focuses on debates criticizing large corporations for prioritizing profits over ethics, hypocrisy in their actions, and calls for greater accountability, often highlighting perceived double standards in Hacker News discussions.
Taiwan-China Sovereignty Debate
📉 0.5xThe cluster focuses on debates about whether Taiwan is part of China, its status as an independent country, and the official positions of both the Taiwanese (ROC) and mainland Chinese (PRC) governments.
Google Becoming Evil
📉 0.4xThe cluster centers on criticism of Google for abandoning its 'don't be evil' motto, acting against user interests, and showing malicious intentions toward its own users.
Software Engineer Salaries
📉 0.2xComments debate compensation levels for software engineers, questioning if figures like 100k-150k are low for mid/senior roles in high-cost areas like the Bay Area, Seattle, and big tech companies, with references to levels.fyi and Glassdoor.
Starlink Internet Solution
➡️ 0.6xDiscussions center on whether Starlink satellite internet can serve as a viable alternative to traditional ISPs in remote, rural, or disrupted areas, addressing availability, cost, effectiveness, and limitations.
Technology's Societal Impact
➡️ 0.5xThe cluster centers on debates about whether technology benefits or harms society and human well-being, with criticisms of over-fetishization, soul-eating effects, and failure to fix human nature contrasted against defenses of its improvements and connectivity.
Project Donation Requests
📉 0.4xUsers inquire about donation options for the featured project or initiative, express intent to donate, report having donated, and request links to support it financially.
Uber Controversies
📉 0.4xThe cluster centers on discussions of Uber's ongoing troubles, scandals, PR issues, and potential downfall, with commenters expressing skepticism, sarcasm, and pessimism about the company's future.
Crypto Involvement Assumptions
📉 0.2xCommenters repeatedly guess, joke, or assume that the main story or incident involves cryptocurrency, often portraying it as typical crypto fraud, shenanigans, or nonsense.
Capitalism Debate
➡️ 0.6xComments debating the nature, flaws, benefits, and limitations of capitalism, often attributing various problems to it or defending its principles.
E-Ink Displays
📉 0.4xThe cluster focuses on discussions about e-ink (e-paper) displays, their advantages like low power use and paper-like readability, limitations such as slow refresh rates and high costs, and potential applications in devices like monitors, phones, and watches.
Facebook Data Privacy
📉 0.2xThe cluster centers on debates about Facebook's collection, storage, and sharing of user data through apps, including access to friends' information without direct consent, and questions why Facebook faces unique criticism compared to other apps.
Debugger vs Print Debugging
➡️ 0.6xThis cluster debates the effectiveness, productivity benefits, and personal preferences between using interactive debuggers and print statements (like printf or logs) for debugging code. Commenters share experiences on when each method excels, with some advocating for debuggers and others preferring prints or mental reasoning.
Survey Selection Bias
📉 0.4xComments criticize a survey's validity, focusing on selection bias, self-selected respondents, and flawed methodology that prevents representative results.
Open Source vs Source-Available
📉 0.5xThe cluster centers on debates over whether a software project qualifies as truly 'open source' or merely 'source-available' due to restrictive licenses that fail to meet open source definitions. Commenters frequently reference the Open Source Initiative criteria and urge accurate terminology.
Jira Usability Debate
📉 0.2xUsers discuss their experiences with Jira, criticizing its UI, performance, complexity, and processes while defending its flexibility and suggesting alternatives like Linear or GitLab.
Postgres vs MySQL
📉 0.4xDebates and discussions on reasons to choose PostgreSQL over MySQL or vice versa, including technical advantages, experiences, and arguments for preferring one database over the other in projects.
Game Engines Debate
📉 0.4xDiscussions center on the merits of using off-the-shelf game engines like Unity, Unreal, and Godot versus building custom or bespoke engines, including whether there's room for new engines and their applications beyond gaming.
Source Code Sharing
📉 0.5xDiscussions center on the risks, benefits, and debates around sharing proprietary source code with companies or open-sourcing it, including fears of IP theft, trust issues, and obligations to make code public.
Bitcoin Hype
📉 0.3xThis cluster features enthusiastic, meme-like comments promoting Bitcoin or claiming various events are 'good for Bitcoin', often in a celebratory or sarcastic tone on Hacker News.
Zuckerberg Criticism
➡️ 0.8xThis cluster consists of comments expressing skepticism, distrust, and criticism toward Mark Zuckerberg's actions, decisions, and character, often portraying him as hypocritical, unchanging, or predictably controversial.
Custom GPTs & AI Tools
➡️ 0.8xCluster focuses on sharing, feedback, and discussions of custom GPTs, ChatGPT frontends, LLM-powered assistants, and tools for productivity, analysis, and conversations.
Violence Definition Debate
➡️ 0.6xCommenters debate the definition of violence, particularly whether non-physical actions like censorship, deplatforming, or harm-causing behaviors qualify as violence versus mere inconvenience or force. Discussions include accusations of advocating violence and distinctions between physical and structural harm.
Video Link Sharing
📉 0.4xUsers frequently share links to YouTube, Vimeo, and other video platforms as recommendations or illustrations relevant to the discussion in various Hacker News threads.
Broken Signup Process
📉 0.4xUsers express frustration over various technical issues preventing them from signing up or registering for a new service, including broken buttons, errors, loading spinners with no feedback, and missing signup options, despite interest in the product.
Electric Vehicles
📉 0.4xComments discuss electric vehicles (EVs), including specific models like Chevy Volt, BMW i3, Nissan Leaf, and Tesla, their features, shortcomings, comparisons to gas cars, and future prospects.
LinkedIn Utility Debate
➡️ 0.7xUsers debate the value of LinkedIn as a professional networking tool, highlighting its benefits for job searching and connections alongside criticisms of spam, recruiter messages, and declining content quality.
IPFS Capabilities Debate
📉 0.1xComments debate whether IPFS already provides the functionality described in the post, compare it to the project, question its usefulness, and discuss its features like hashing, pinning, and hosting.
Haskell Programming Language
📉 0.4xComments focus on a project or code being written in Haskell, suggestions to use Haskell, requests for Haskell implementations, and discussions of its features, strengths, and alternatives.
Facebook Whistleblower Memo
📉 0.3xThe cluster discusses a Facebook whistleblower's internal memo revealing political manipulation and privacy issues, with heavy skepticism about Facebook's honesty, responses, and track record of scandals like Cambridge Analytica.
Student Loan Debt
📉 0.2xDiscussions center on the high costs of college tuition, the burden of student loan debt, debates over its value relative to job prospects, and alternatives like avoiding college or choosing affordable options.
Machine Translation Tools
➡️ 0.6xDiscussions center on using Google Translate and alternatives like DeepL or ChatGPT to handle non-English content, often recommending them as simple solutions over other options.
PowerPoint vs Web Slides
➡️ 0.7xUsers critique web-based slide decks for lacking standalone value without narration, repeatedly comparing them unfavorably to PowerPoint and requesting alternatives or improvements.
Hatred of Advertisements
➡️ 0.5xThis cluster centers on users expressing strong dislike for ads, viewing them as annoying, unethical, manipulative, and a form of mental pollution, with debates on their necessity and personal avoidance strategies.
Questioning Downvotes
📉 0.5xUsers repeatedly ask for explanations on why specific comments or posts are being downvoted on Hacker News, expressing confusion and seeking clarification from the community.
HTTP/2 vs HTTP/1.1
📉 0.4xDiscussions center on the necessity, benefits, adoption, and comparisons of HTTP/2 versus HTTP/1.1, including performance improvements, HTTPS requirements, and mentions of HTTP/3.
AI Article Summarization
➡️ 0.8xComments discuss using AI tools like LLMs, GPT, and services such as Kagi or HN summarizers to generate summaries of articles and Hacker News posts, including questions on accuracy, implementation, and alternatives.
Apple App Store Fees
📉 0.4xComments debate Apple's 30% commission on App Store sales and in-app purchases, weighing its value against services like distribution and payment processing, comparisons to other platforms, and calls for reductions.
Oracle Criticism
➡️ 0.8xComments heavily criticize Oracle's aggressive business practices, litigious nature, and poor customer relations, often portraying them as having 'hostages' rather than customers and questioning their motives in various tech contexts.
Paywalled Articles on HN
📉 0.4xUsers complain about Hacker News submissions linking to paywalled articles, debate whether they should be allowed or banned, and discuss workarounds or HN guidelines on such content.
Startup Naming Debate
➡️ 0.5xThe cluster focuses on discussions about choosing names for startups and products, debating factors like uniqueness, descriptiveness, pronounceability, SEO benefits, domain availability, and trends in naming conventions.
Waymo vs Tesla Self-Driving
➡️ 1.4xThis cluster centers on comparisons between Waymo's autonomous robotaxi technology and Tesla's Full Self-Driving/Autopilot, debating superiority in safety, capabilities, scalability, and real-world deployment.
Journalist Criticism
📉 0.4xThis cluster centers on mocking and criticizing journalists for their perceived incompetence, lack of basic knowledge, and failure to perform proper journalism, often questioning if they deserve the title.
Image and GIF Sharing
📉 0.4xUsers share links to Imgur albums, single images, GIFs, memes, screenshots, and other visuals, often as direct responses or examples in a lighthearted or illustrative thread.
Facebook Privacy Concerns
📉 0.3xComments express distrust in Facebook's handling of user data and privacy, highlighting repeated breaches, careless practices, and lack of user consent.
Software Tool Alternatives
➡️ 0.5xUsers recommend various alternative tools, apps, and software options to the one in the main post, often highlighting open-source or similar projects.
Metric vs Imperial Debate
📉 0.3xThe cluster focuses on criticism of the US's use of imperial units instead of the metric system, advocating for metric adoption due to its simplicity, global usage, and alignment with modern calculations.
macOS Upgrade Compatibility
📉 0.5xDiscussions focus on support for older macOS versions, hardware limitations preventing upgrades, security updates on legacy systems, and user reluctance to update due to compatibility issues.
Twitter Link Complaints
📉 0.1xUsers express frustration with Twitter links being unusable due to ads, login requirements, redirects, and ad blockers, often requesting direct links or alternatives like Nitter.
Resale Viability Debate
📉 0.4xDiscussions revolve around questioning why certain parties aren't reselling or selling items, debating feasibility, market demand, plummeting value, ownership issues, and potential buyers.
New Knowledge Acknowledgments
📉 0.4xThis cluster features comments where users express surprise upon discovering previously unknown information and thank the commenter for sharing it.
Phone Number Requirements
📉 0.3xUsers debate the necessity of providing phone numbers for service sign-ups, with many objecting due to privacy invasion and spam risks, while others defend it for fraud prevention and spam control.
Stealing from Thieves Debate
📉 0.3xThe cluster centers on debates over whether taking property or value from thieves, scammers, or bad actors constitutes actual theft, questioning moral justifications like 'thief from a thief' logic and legal definitions of stealing.
COVID Herd Immunity
📉 0.1xThe cluster discusses herd immunity in the context of COVID-19, debating whether it has been achieved, the impact of lockdowns and suppression measures on R0 and spread, and the roles of vaccines and natural infection in reaching immunity thresholds.
Poor Customer Service
📉 0.4xCommenters criticize companies for mistreating or disrespecting customers, defending customer rights and highlighting the importance of good customer service in response to a specific incident or policy.
This Is The Internet
➡️ 0.6xComments repeatedly invoke the chaotic, uncontrollable, or disappointing nature of the internet to justify, lament, or accept online behaviors, events, or content.
GitHub Issue Reporting
➡️ 0.6xComments primarily discuss reporting bugs, opening issues, or checking existing GitHub issues for software projects, with users encouraging submissions to trackers for visibility and fixes.
US Foreign Policy Hypocrisy
➡️ 0.8xThe cluster centers on debates about the US hypocritically criticizing other countries for interference, meddling, or human rights abuses while engaging in similar or worse actions itself, often featuring whataboutism and calls against US exceptionalism.
Fascism Definition Debate
➡️ 1.4xThe cluster centers on debates about the definition of fascism, with users accusing or denying that certain political actions, figures, or policies qualify as fascist.
Gibberish Spam Comments
📉 0.5xThis cluster is dominated by repetitive letter strings, random character sequences, and incoherent text resembling bot-generated spam or nonsense posts on Hacker News.
GDPR Compliance Debate
📉 0.2xThe cluster centers on discussions about whether a specific practice or feature violates GDPR, with users citing articles, questioning compliance, and debating legal implications like consent and data processing.
Misrepresentation Denials
➡️ 0.5xComments where users refute claims that they said, implied, or meant something they did not, often correcting strawman arguments or misreadings of their statements.
Website Design Criticism
📉 0.4xUsers critique the bland, generic, Bootstrap-like, or ugly designs of various websites, often comparing them to functional but simple sites like Hacker News and debating if polished aesthetics are necessary for success.
Beer Drinking Jokes
📉 0.4xThis cluster features humorous comments referencing beer, alcohol, or drinks, often suggesting them as solutions to problems or using idiomatic expressions like 'hold my beer'.
Pornography Effects Debate
📉 0.5xThis cluster revolves around discussions on the impacts of pornography, including its potential harms to the brain and relationships, benefits like stress relief and reduced crime, consumption patterns, and societal role.
Product Review Reliability
📉 0.3xDiscussions center on skepticism about the authenticity of online product reviews, including suspicions of fake or paid reviews, calls for reviewing reviewers, and recommendations for trustworthy review sites.
Encryption Backdoors Debate
➡️ 0.6xThe cluster centers on debates about government-mandated backdoors in encryption, opposition to weakening end-to-end encryption for surveillance purposes, and concerns over legal efforts to ban or regulate strong encryption.
Transphobia and Transgender Issues
📉 0.5xThe cluster focuses on debates accusing or defending against transphobia in Hacker News comments and articles, including discussions on trans people's existence, rights, athletes, and TERFs.
Show HN Advice
➡️ 0.8xComments primarily suggest or debate submitting personal projects as 'Show HN' posts on Hacker News, often linking to and explaining the official guidelines on what qualifies.
Raspberry Pi Compatibility
📉 0.3xComments primarily inquire about running the featured project on Raspberry Pi, sharing experiences on performance, setup, and compatibility. Users frequently ask if it works well on RPi or suggest it as an ideal platform.
HN Moderation Censorship
📉 0.4xDiscussions revolve around flagging, downvoting, and moderation practices on Hacker News that suppress controversial or dissenting opinions, often on sensitive political topics, leading to concerns about echo chambers and censorship.
Article is Advertisement
➡️ 0.6xUsers repeatedly identify and criticize the linked Hacker News post as an advertisement disguised as an article or news. Discussions focus on its promotional nature and suitability for the site.
Chinese Hardware Espionage
➡️ 0.7xDiscussions center on suspicions of Chinese government or companies inserting backdoors and spy chips in hardware like servers and laptops for espionage, referencing incidents such as the Bloomberg Supermicro scandal and FBI reports on economic espionage.
Premature Scaling Debate
📉 0.3xComments discuss whether startups and developers should prioritize scalability early or focus on growth until scaling issues arise, referencing Paul Graham's 'do things that don't scale' and real-world examples.
MacOS vs Linux Switching
➡️ 0.6xUsers share personal anecdotes about switching between MacOS, Linux, and Windows, debating pros and cons like reliability, tinkering needs, hardware integration, battery life, and productivity.
Health Insurance Debate
➡️ 0.8xThe cluster focuses on debates about the purpose of health insurance (catastrophic vs. routine care), misconceptions in the US system, perverse incentives for insurers, and how healthy individuals subsidize the unhealthy through premiums and regulations like the ACA.
Open Source Licensing
➡️ 0.5xDebate on open source licenses like MIT, GPL, and AGPL, focusing on whether companies should contribute back when profiting from permissive OSS without restrictions, and suggestions for copyleft or alternative licenses to enforce reciprocity.
VR Immersion Debate
📉 0.2xCommenters debate VR headsets' superior immersion over screens for experiences like simulations, fights, or viewing, advocating trials of VR while discussing its potential beyond gaming.
Non-Native English Apologies
➡️ 0.6xThis cluster consists of comments where users apologize for or explain grammatical errors and phrasing issues because English is not their native language, often in response to corrections from others.
Cost Concerns
📉 0.5xCommenters debate the costs associated with a product, service, or project, frequently questioning total costs, breakdowns, justifications, and whether they are prohibitive or negligible.
US-Only Availability Complaints
📉 0.4xUsers express disappointment that a product, service, or feature is restricted to the US or unavailable in their regions like Europe, Canada, or elsewhere, with some noting it's not yet in the US.
Socialism Accusations Debate
➡️ 0.6xComments repeatedly accuse or question if a policy or idea amounts to socialism, often sarcastically, while debating definitions and distinctions from social welfare or other systems.
Economy Mechanics Debate
➡️ 0.6xComments debate and criticize simplistic or flawed understandings of how economies work, questioning economic models, their priorities, and whether certain ideas align with real economic principles.
French Language Pun
📉 0.4xCommenters, particularly French speakers, discuss and explain a pun or wordplay in French featured in the article, debating its recognition and meaning outside French contexts.
MySQL vs MariaDB
📉 0.3xComments criticize MySQL, particularly due to Oracle ownership, and advocate switching to MariaDB as a drop-in replacement or PostgreSQL as a superior alternative.
Perverse Incentives
📉 0.5xComments focus on identifying and critiquing perverse incentives or misaligned motivations in systems, businesses, or policies that lead to unintended negative outcomes. Discussions emphasize how 'you get what you incentivize' drives behavior.
Email Client Alternatives
📉 0.3xUsers recommend and compare various email clients as alternatives to Mail.app and others like Thunderbird, MailMate, Mailspring, and Spark, highlighting features for power users such as fast search, GPG support, and open-source options.
HN Downvote Complaints
➡️ 0.5xUsers complain about receiving downvotes on Hacker News, often highlighting the lack of explanations, how downvotes prove their points, or wishing for the ability to downvote.
C# IDE Recommendations
📉 0.3xUsers debate and recommend IDEs like Visual Studio, JetBrains Rider, and VSCode for C# and .NET development, sharing experiences on performance, features, and cross-platform support.
Space Debris and Kessler Syndrome
➡️ 0.6xThe cluster focuses on concerns about space junk, satellite collisions, and the risk of Kessler syndrome from large constellations like Starlink, debating mitigation through low orbits and rapid de-orbiting versus long-term orbital pollution.
Sameness Assertions
➡️ 0.5xCommenters repeatedly claim that two concepts, arguments, products, or statements are essentially the same thing, often agreeing that there's no meaningful difference.
German Privacy Culture
📉 0.4xThe cluster debates cultural differences in Germany, particularly greater privacy consciousness, quiet social norms, and preferences for privacy in public spaces, often contrasting with experiences in the US or other countries.
Not My Experience
📉 0.5xComments where users deny or refute claims by stating they have not personally observed or experienced the described issue or phenomenon.
Customer Support Complaints
📉 0.4xThis cluster centers on complaints about poor or nonexistent customer support from tech companies and SaaS providers, where paying customers struggle to get help without publicizing issues on platforms like HN or Twitter.
Lying Accusations Debate
➡️ 0.5xThe cluster focuses on heated debates about whether specific statements or actions constitute lying, including arguments over intent, semantics, and truthfulness.