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 order> is that for a long time it was the only viable configuration format Actually, this is not the case. We had INI format for simple stuff and XML (protected with entire schema) for complex things many years ago, which worked. Yet, we wanted something readable (like INI), but able to express complex types (XML). I don't think Toml is a viable replacement - for me, it has an INI-level of simplicity with even worst hacks to have nested structures…
Almost all of this is solved by basically putting quotes around strings. Yaml has its uses cases where you want things json doesnt do like recursion or anchors/aliases/tags. Or at least it has had - perhaps cue/dhall/hcl solves things better. Jsonnet is another. I havent tried enough to test how much better they are.
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
- 2
- Total points
- 811
- Total comments
- 495
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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2023-01-12 | The YAML Document from HellFirst breakout · Best thread | ruuda | 566 | 353 |
| 2025-06-11 | The YAML Document from Hell | fanf2 | 5 | 0 |
| 2025-07-28 | The YAML Document Hell | elza_1111 | 1 | 0 |
| 2025-09-23 | YAML document from hell (2023)Latest 20+ point return | agvxov | 239 | 142 |