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 orderIn 1990 NeXT released the NeXTstation Color. There are screenshots online of WorldWideWeb.app running on the NextStation Color, and the hyperlinks are all blue. It's true that Tim Berners-Lee wrote WorldWideWeb.app on monochrome NeXT cubes, but it seems reasonable that the default underlining he used (in the Text object) may have been blue when displayed in color. Very strange that this article didn't bother to even consider or investigate this, simply dismissing the NeXT as monochrome. See for example…
They're blue because computer scientist Ben Schneiderman made them blue using research from 1985: " In 1985, a group of students at the University of Maryland, mentored by computer science professor Ben Shneiderman , conducted a series of experiments to study the impact of different hyperlink colors on user experience. They were eager to determine which color would be the most effective in terms of visibility and readability. The experiments revealed interesting findings. While red highlighting made the links more…
(2021)
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
- 452
- Total comments
- 319
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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2021-08-26 | Why are hyperlinks blue?First breakout · Best thread | TangerineDream | 348 | 255 |
| 2024-01-25 | Why Are Hyperlinks Blue? | throwup238 | 4 | 1 |
| 2025-10-02 | Why are hyperlinks blue? (2021)Latest 20+ point return | redbell | 100 | 63 |