hcker.news: A Hacker News Reader with AI Story Filtering

hcker.news enables AI-free Hacker News browsing

hcker.news is a third-party reader for Hacker News designed to allow users to exclude AI-related content from their feed. By using the ai=exclude parameter in the URL, the platform filters out stories centered on artificial intelligence, catering to users who prefer the traditional technical and eclectic mix of topics originally associated with the site.

Key Features and Functionality

AI Content Filtering

The primary value proposition of hcker.news is its ability to filter the front page to remove AI stories. This addresses a growing sentiment among some community members who feel that AI-related news has become disproportionately prevalent on the Hacker News front page.

Customizable RSS Feeds

The platform provides customizable RSS feeds, allowing users to integrate their filtered view of Hacker News into their preferred feed readers. However, some users have noted that the current RSS implementation requires clicking through to the hcker.news site before reaching the original Hacker News discussion, suggesting a need for direct links to the HN discussion pages.

Community Alternatives and Feedback

While hcker.news provides a server-side filtered view, other community members have developed client-side solutions to achieve similar results.

I also built a browser extension to do this client-side. It just auto-clicks the Hide links for any story with an AI-related term.

This browser extension approach, available via GitHub, automates the native "Hide" functionality of Hacker News for any story containing AI-related keywords.

Users have expressed strong positive reactions to the tool, with some stating it restores the experience they "originally came for." Additional feature requests from the community include extending the filtering capabilities to the /newest page, as some users rely on that view rather than the front page for their daily consumption.