MurphyA/hacker-news huggingface dataset:
by bonoboTP | 2026-03-11 20:24:42+00:00
You either have something documented and quantified and measured and objective criteria tickboxes and deal with this style of failure mode, or you rely on subjective judgment and assessment and accept the failure mode of bias, nepotism, old boy's clubs etc. Of course the ideal case is to rely on the unbureaucratic informal wise and impartial judgment of some hypothetical perfect humans you can fully trust and rely on, and they always decide fully on merits etc. without having to follow any rigid criteria and checkboxes and numbers on hiring and promotion etc. But people are not perfect and society largely decided to go the bureaucratic way to ensure equal opportunities and to reduce bias through this kind of transparency.
by TZubiri | 2026-03-11 20:24:50+00:00
This is a pretty outdated take. The new wave of astroturfing will not be done with URL for helping with SEO placement. Rather astroturfers will just recommend their brands without a link, like saying Tom Zubiri is the best programmer I've ever worked with. That's it, an LLM will read that and now the notion that Tom Zubiri is the best programmer is already implanted in the 'next-token prediction rewards' which would at the very minimum require some countermeasures in the Chatbot app to avoid shilling.
by altairprime | 2026-03-11 20:24:57+00:00
Grammarly use is outright prohibited by this; AI-edited writing is no longer writing that you hold personal and exclusive responsibility for having written. Consider Stephen Hawking’s voice box generator. While the sounds produced were machine-assisted, the writing was his alone. If you find yourself unable to participate in this web forum without paying a proofreader (in time, money, or cycles) to copy-edit your writing, then you’re not welcome on HN as a participant.
by Kim_Bruning | 2026-03-11 20:25:03+00:00
You know, I probably have standing to argue that people who use the web are just as lazy ;-)

I'm just old enough that I was in the middle of the transition from paper (in primary school in the 80s) to online (starting late 90s)

I say this somewhat tongue in cheek, but obviously people should drive to 3 different libraries across 3 countries and read the journals in their own binders (in at least 3 different languages)

In reality: full-text online is convenient. Having an LLM assist with search and filtering is convenient.

I could go back to the old ways. Would you like me to reply in pen? My handwriting is atrocious.

I really prefer modern tools, though. Not everything older is better. Whether you want to read what I write is up to you.

(edit: Not hyperbole. I live in a small country, and am old enough to still remember the 80's as a kid.)
by alistairSH | 2026-03-11 20:25:06+00:00
Looks like those were in states that don't require ANY ID to vote, which I find ridiculous, so I guess we agree. I live in VA, we require ID, so the problem shown in NY shouldn't be possible.

And again, you still have to be willing to commit a felony to move the needly by ONE vote, which is not likely to be very common. The risk/reward simply isn't there.
by MC995 | 2026-03-11 20:25:12+00:00
> You'd also need a fake ID

For what? In my state there's no requirement to show ID. When I first moved here I attempted to show mine at the poll and the poll worker told me to quickly put that away and she didn't want to see it. I'm not even sure it's legal for them to ask for ID here, given her panicked reaction to me trying to show it.

Since then I've voted in this state for around 10 years and it's always the same. I could say I'm whoever I want, and just be given a ballot.

Edit: I don't live in NY either, as the other poster used as an example. ID should be an obvious and necessary requirement, but it isn't in many states.
by iamflimflam1 | 2026-03-11 20:25:14+00:00
Something I was planning on building but never got round - if anyone wants to do it then feel free to use this idea.

Lots of companies really have no idea what javascript is being inserted into their websites - marketing teams add all sorts of crazy scripts that don't get vetted by anyone and are often loaded dynamically and can be changed without anyone knowing.

A service that monitors a site and flags up when the code changes - even better if it actually scans and flags up malicious code.
by jacquesm | 2026-03-11 20:25:19+00:00
That's fine. Your arguments will not come of stronger to the reader, they are strong or they are not and we're all clever enough to read through the occasional grammar error.

And that's where I think the guidelines could be expanded a bit more to restore the balance. Something along the line of 'HN is visited by people from all over the world and from many different cultural and linguistical backgrounds. Please respect that and realize that native English and Western background should not be automatically assumed. It is the message that counts, not the form in which it was presented.'.
by TomatoCo | 2026-03-11 20:25:21+00:00
I think translation should be the only exception. It might even need to be, given how all automated translators use LLMs these days. The only alternative I see is to have people post in whatever language they're most comfortable in and then everyone else has to translate for them which just feels inefficient.

And of course, a more limited exception for posts about LLM behavior. It might be necessary for people to share prompts and outputs to discuss the topic.
by xpe | 2026-03-11 20:25:40+00:00
Here is one elephant in the room: what is the process behind this guideline / policy? What happens after a comment gets deleted or a person gets banned?

As I understand it, HN moderators are thinking hard about this insane new world.* From my POV, there are a combination of worthy goals: transparency of the process, mechanisms for appeal, overall signal-to-noise ratio, and (something all of us can do better) more empathy and intellectual honestly. It isn't kind to accuse a human being of not being a human being.

If we can't find ways to be kind to people because of the new dynamic, maybe we need to figure out a new dynamic! And it isn't just about individuals; it is about the culture and the system and the technology we're embedded in.

* Aside: I'm not sure that any of us really can grasp the magnitude of what is happening -- this is kuh-ray-Z.
by saphalpdyl | 2026-03-11 20:25:53+00:00
Thank you for the comment.

Mininet did help me a lot during the initial phases. The main reason I made the switch to containernet(mininet-fork with containers ) and then to containerlab was because I wanted to run an actual NOS image as part of my topology. That was really what pushed me to try and switch to other options.

Yup, its a different experience. Sometimes, you end up learning something you never even intended to.

As for the circuit planning, I'd guess that they have circuits map on something like Netbox and using a intermediary system that maps a customer's location to the nearest circuit. Though, I don't know how they handle the optimization side of it to prevent cases like what happened to your neighbour.
by armchairhacker | 2026-03-11 20:26:02+00:00
I think em-dashes were once a reliable indicator (though never proof), but recent models have been fine-tuned to use them much less. Lots of recent AI-generated writing I've seen doesn't have em-dashes. Meanwhile, I've heard many people say that they naturally use em-dashes, and were already and/or are afraid of being accused of AI; so ironically this rumor may be causing people to use their own voice less.
by jauntywundrkind | 2026-03-11 20:26:04+00:00
It's remarkable to me that this shows what an iPhone chip has been capable of, and a reminder about how strongly Apple works to keep phone, tablet, and laptop in separate segments. Even though they share the same chips.

Going to be signficiantly harder for Qualcomm X2 Elite to make a splash, given the price here. I have high hopes for the X2 Elite Extreme (even if it is going to be cursed with incredible difficulty trying to get each of these non-ACPI / DeviceTree systems running Linux). But this raises the bar signficiantly.
by Aachen | 2026-03-11 20:26:29+00:00
"just develop a personality" sounds like a shallow dismissal. Most comments in most threads could theoretically be autogenerated when given style samples of what fits on HN and what opinion to use

A personality hardly shows through in a handful of sentences, besides which, I'd rather judge comments by merit than by the personality of the poster (hacker ethics, point number 4: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hacker_ethic#The_hacker_ethics)
by progmetaldev | 2026-03-11 20:26:37+00:00
You could always invite him over to check it out, just to see how he reacts to it, and if he's interested more in the tech aspect or the music aspect. Due to the increased rarity of the device, you'd probably want to find out if he would actually use the device, or try taking it apart to see how it works. I'm not sure how old your daughter is, but you could try asking her if she would be upset if you allowed the neighbor to play with the device, just to avoid any ill feelings.

It sounds like you've got some great options either way. I wish I had a neighbor growing up that had cool music gear (although I did get to grow up with a dad that got me into computers before I could read, so that definitely built my love for technology). Sounds like you're the kind of dad more kids these days need in their lives.
by fidotron | 2026-03-11 20:26:41+00:00
> then the beholder is trusting not just the correctness of that one sentence but all of the experiences and insights from the author.

This is my point.

There is no sane endgame here that doesn't end up with each user effectively declaring who they do and don't care to hear, and possibly transitively extend that relationship n steps into the graph. For example you might trust all humans vetted by the German government but distrust HN commenters.

For now HN and others are free to do as they will (and the current AI situation has been intolerable), however, I suspect in the near future governments will attempt to impose their own version of it on to ever less significant forums, and as a tech community we need to be thinking more clearly about where this goes before we lose all choice in the matter.
by convolvatron | 2026-03-11 20:26:47+00:00
personally I think this is 'fair'. wave your stick around and threaten people and the community takes away your stick. But I don't really trust this administration to follow the wisdom of the elder Bush. it seems a situation primed to follow the course of the mideast wars of the last couple decades, where the US stayed purely for the reason of not wanting to own up to the obvious and attempt to force some kind of submission. I guess we can check in a couple weeks to see which way the wind the blowing.
by halapro | 2026-03-11 20:26:54+00:00
It's just momentum. You buy windows because you have windows. You buy windows because there's not really much of a choice. You have windows because you're not going out of your ways to reconfigure hundreds of laptops at your company just for your employees to be less comfortable with Linux.

Now introduce a choice… and things might change.

With the vast majority of software nowadays living in the browser, your OS matters less and less, especially for a business that buys machines for its employees.
by themafia | 2026-03-11 20:27:09+00:00
I'm not sure having a microbiologist on to talk about RF energy weapons was a good choice. I also have significant doubts about this "black market Russian RF weapon" storyline. Just because you found an item on the black market doesn't mean it exists in general, is a viable weapon, or can be used to explain "Havanna Syndrome."

There's almost no data with which to draw any conclusions about this.

It seems convenient that this pops up right at the moment the government could use a distraction.
by choward | 2026-03-11 20:27:29+00:00
I've never liked the idea of my display having an integrated computer. Especially one I don't control. This non-sense just furthers that.

Displays last a long time. Eventually the computer will become outdated especially if companies can just remotely load viruses like this onto them. I just connect my computer to my TV and that's the only input I ever use. Full control. The "smart" part of "smart" TVs is idiotic.
by Normal_gaussian | 2026-03-11 20:27:42+00:00
This rule is very important. Like many of the other rules, it is open to interpretation, but it is a line in the sand that defines allowable behaviour and disallowable behaviour.

This rule will have an effect on the behaviour of the 'good players', and make the 'bad players' a lot easier to spot. Moderation needs this. I see this as stopping a race-to-the-bottom on value extraction from HN as a platform.
Ask HN: Add a policy to state when LLM is used to assist in writing
by smusamashah | 2026-03-11 20:28:06+00:00
On one hand there are bots that write comments. On the other there are people who use LLM to help them write better. It seems genuine but it muddies the waters. The person responding in good faith can point out that it's not a human written text. Others might not even bother responding.

We can make a point that's it's only the content that matters. But that makes it moltbook. I believe we want humans behind those thoughts expressed here as text. And if those humans employ bots to express something on their behalf they must add a disclaimer. Without disclaimer, I believe, the line between a bot and human disappears.
by FarmerPotato | 2026-03-11 20:28:09+00:00
stickers
> just looks cheap due to different surfaces and colors

They are cheap!

To print on a piece you must run the inkjet assembly line, do QC on it.. With early Collectable Minifig series, I heard they outsourced that. I imagine inkjet lines that run all day for one piece type (maybe having changeable jigs.)

It's cheap to print a whole sheet of stickers!

Another approach that isn't so cheap is: in-mold transfer printing sheets. I learned about this at plastics shows around 2000; Apple used it on the all-in-one spotted iMac in 2001-ish.

Now since Lego ships perpetually ships 1x4s and 1x2s with black smileys or such, I guess carbon black in-mold transfer must be cost-effective. (That's a guess)

I know we're gonna be arguing taste in stickers forever.
by mmooss | 2026-03-11 20:28:12+00:00
Another solution - in addition or instead - is requiring LLM output to be labeled.

The biggest danger of LLMs is impersonating humans. Obviously they have been carefully constructed to be socially appealing. Think of the motivation behind that:

It is almost completely unnecessary to LLM function and it's main application is to deceive and manipulate. Legal regulation of LLMs should ban impersonation of humans, including anthropomorphism (and so should HN's regulation). Call an LLM 'software' and label it's output as 'output'.

Imagine how many problems would be solved by that rule. Yes, it's not universally enforceable, but attach a big enough penalty and known people and corporations will not do it, and most people will decide it's not worth it.
by luz666 | 2026-03-11 20:28:17+00:00
In Switzerland, it is only done in few cantons and only up to 30% of the population.[1]
I have no idea how it is intended, but I personally interpret it like this:
- It is mostly an experiment so far.
- If it fails (thinking about exploitation), Switzerland does not lose a lot and just goes back to 100% paper-voting.
- It is a free service to other countries to show what e-voting can be in best-case.
- It does not show what could happen in worst-case.
- The riskiest part of this experiment is the interpretation.

[1] https://www.news.admin.ch/en/newnsb/ZLw6w1GV_UdJKDocuT0sX
by grufkork | 2026-03-11 20:28:18+00:00
I think we’ll see a return to smaller groups and implementing a lot of systems the way we do it IRL. I think you could definitely do a more fine-grained system that progressively adds less score to contacts the further away they are. In combination with some type of accumulating reputation system, you’d have both a force to keep out unknown IDs, but also a reason for one to stick to their current ID even though it’s anonymous.

Adding this type of rep system would destroy a lot of what is so cool about the internet though. There’d probably be segregation based on rep if it’s very visible, new IDs drowning in a sea of noise. Being anonymous but with a record isn’t the same as posting for the very first time as a completely blank identity and still being given an audience. Making online comms more like real life would alleviate some problems but would also lose part of the reason they’re used in the first place. I don’t see much any other way to do it besides maybe a state-provided anonymous identity provider (though that’s risky for a number of reasons), but it’s going to be sad to see things go.
by boothby | 2026-03-11 20:28:24+00:00
> I sent 70 emails. Personalised. Researched. Each one had a PS line referencing something specific about that person — a career pivot, a published article, a podcast appearance. I spent real time on every single one.

> Zero replies.

.

.

.

> Hermann Simon — the founder of Simon-Kucher, one of the world’s most respected pricing consultancies — was one of the few people who did reply.

I know when I'm being lied to. I stopped reading here.
by LatticeAnimal | 2026-03-11 20:28:28+00:00
Physically crash. When we would block the control loop at all (even down to 100hz), we would get errors and then occasionally the arm would erratically experience massive acceleration spikes and crash into its nearby surroundings before e-stopping.

Re: Other comment. Yes, this was with ur3e s which by default have update rates at around 500hz.
by tovej | 2026-03-11 20:28:59+00:00
I'm not sure I follow.

What I mean is that it makes no sense to say you're fighting a war to achieve peace if you're the one who started the war, breaking the peace that existed before then.

If peace is your goal, then the status quo was already in line with your goal. Starting the war contradicts your stated goal of peace.

Do I really have to spell all that out?
by tempestn | 2026-03-11 20:29:12+00:00
There's a big difference between me running a filter on other people's words, and those people themselves choosing to run one and then approving the results.

I personally don't see a problem with someone using a grammar checker as long as they aren't just blindly accepting its suggestions. That said, if someone actually is using it in that way, it shouldn't be detectable anyway, so it probably doesn't matter all that much whether or not it's included in the letter of the rule.
by jmuguy | 2026-03-11 20:29:22+00:00
Beyond folks for whom English is a second language, I agree with you. I don't understand why people are immediately trying to find some loophole in this with spelling, grammar, etc checks. We just want to communicate with you, and if you sound like an idiot without the help of an LLM then maybe work on that rather than pretending to be Hemingway.
by gleenn | 2026-03-11 20:29:33+00:00
I think we can be a little more nuanced than calling this sentiment outright stupid. A top HN article is about Scientific publications being overwhelmed with LLM trash. LLMs do pose a very real challenge to modern discourse. 10 years ago we could know that if we read something that sounded intelligible that at least some minimum effort had been put forth by a huma to be coherent. That bar is now completely gone. Now all internet users have to become adept AI-sniffers to know if some random bot isn't wandering themnoff a mental cliff with perfect formatting and eloquent prose. Having visceral reactions to that aren't unfounded in my opinion. We've lost real signal and having a forum like this be polluted will be a big casualty if we aren't careful and deliberate about our reaction to AI.
by whalesalad | 2026-03-11 20:29:42+00:00
Lenovo's website is a disaster. Not only do they appear to have 100 sku's but on a 27" 5K Apple Studio Display I can see four laptops in the grid[1], which are actually cut off with their prices below the fold. Every single grid item has a "Katapult" lease to own offer, a "My Lenovo Rewards" offer (who the fuck is collecting rewards points from Lenovo, and what customer prioritizes the rewards they might earn over literally every other piece of information about the laptop?). There are 30 copies of the "®" symbol on the page. It's honestly a lesson in how not to design an e-commerce site.

- [1]: https://www.lenovo.com/us/en/laptops/subseries-results/?visi...
by tomxor | 2026-03-11 20:29:43+00:00
Yes, by generally I really mean all the defaults are pretty permissive, but I understand some people tune both TCP and SSH on their servers to drop connections faster because they are worried about resource exhaustion.

But if you throw up a default Linux install for your SSH box and have a not-horrible wifi router with a not-horrible internet provider then IME you can sleep your machine and keep an SSH connection alive for quite some time... I appreciate that might be too many "not-horrible" requirements for the real world today though.
by blemblemblam | 2026-03-11 20:29:48+00:00
The secret is to buy a used ThinkPad on eBay. I have two of them. I think the ridiculous MSRP for them combined is $7000 and I paid $1600 in total for a p series and an x1 carbon (3 years old, but essentially new).

These neos are for college and high school students.
by altairprime | 2026-03-11 20:29:49+00:00
Do the best that you can unassisted. There is a chasm of difference between someone coming into English from another language, and someone using Google Translate to submit a post originating another language. French aphorisms are a stellar example of this: I’d rather read “A bird in the bush may not fly into oven” and have to parse out the meaning, than have some AI translate it as “Don’t count your chickens before they hatch”; sure, there’s an iffy [the] grammatical moment at ‘fly into oven’, but it’s such a distinct phrase and carries a lot more room for contextual nuance than having an AI substitute in an American aphorism with machine translation allows for.

(For example: If I’m trying to express a point about how we shouldn’t assume that dinner isn’t “her duty” but is instead “our duty”, a French-like aphorism expressed in English literally as “the chicken won’t fly into the oven unprompted” could plausibly be AI-translated instead as “don’t count your chickens before they hatch”, doing catastrophic damage to the point. To a machine translator those two aphorisms are not distinctive; but they are, even if it’s a weird expression in common U.S. English.)
by minimaxir | 2026-03-11 20:29:50+00:00
The "I asked <LLM>" disclosures vary between a) implying the LLM is an expert resource, which is bad, and b) disclosure that an LLM was referenced with the disclosure being transparent about it, which is typically good but more context dependent.

Unfortunately (a) is more common, and the backlash against has been removing the communinity incentive to provide (b).
by xpe | 2026-03-11 20:29:55+00:00
My take is orthogonal. Overall, I've become less tolerant of token-generators of all kinds (including people) of bad quality (including tropes, bad reasoning, clunky writing, whatever). But I digress.

If we want human "on the other end" we gotta get to ground truth. We're fighting a losing battle thinking that text-based forums can survive without some additional identity components.
by artemonster | 2026-03-11 20:29:55+00:00
I find it interesting that we havent invented a democratic version of policing a rule system. HN is dang, and he is dictator and guardian of these rules, basically. If you replace them with some typical reddit mod HN dies. If you spread out this role to some democratically elected mods via karma system this will fall apart just as quick as StackOverflow did, so, also HN dies.