A List of Hacker News's Undocumented Features and Behaviors (2018)
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Submission timeline
2007–2026One slot for every year since HN launched. Height is that year's peak points; orange marks a 100+ point or 50+ comment breakout. Select a bar to open its strongest thread.
First comments on top threads
HN comment orderTo me HNs biggest feature is the lack of features and the lack of 'innovation', or rather redesigns for the sake of redesigning. Keep up the fantastic moderation and the wonderful lack of innovation, HN people!
fine, I'll update the list today
I don't believe this is an actual feature, but I've noticed a trend that I've been calling "twos", where, at any given moment, a particular subject (present as a word or phrase in the article's title) will show up twice on the front page. Funnily enough, currently the "twos" subject is "Hacker News", with this article and "What I've Learned from Hacker News" both being present in the front page at the same time.
From 10 months ago https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26866482 over 200 comments (Arguably a dupe, as it's been less than a year)
The first top-level comment from each of the four biggest threads, in HN’s own order. Excerpts are shortened; open a comment for full context.
- Breakout years
- 4
- Total points
- 1929
- Total comments
- 803
100+ points or 50+ comments
reference only — not used in Hall rules or ranking
reference only — not used in Hall rules or ranking
Every submission
| Date | Title as submitted | By | Points | Comments |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2019-02-20 | A List of Hacker News's Undocumented Features and BehaviorsFirst breakout | adanhawth | 437 | 183 |
| 2020-06-06 | A List of Hacker News's Undocumented Features and Behaviors (2018)Best thread | billme | 673 | 266 |
| 2022-02-24 | A List of Hacker News's Undocumented Features and Behaviors | JonathanBuchh | 99 | 64 |
| 2023-12-08 | Hidden Functions of Hacker News | aubanel | 7 | 1 |
| 2023-12-26 | A list of Hacker News's undocumented features and behaviorsHall induction | ssgodderidge | 653 | 279 |
| 2025-10-04 | A List of Hacker News's Undocumented Features and BehaviorsLatest 20+ point return | aubanel | 60 | 10 |