Hacker News
news.ycombinator.com ↗Y Combinator-run tech link aggregator since 2007; community-curated, no editorial layer.
Is Hacker News reliable to cite? At grade C (66/100 on the SourceScore Index), Hacker News is a mid-tier source — usable, but verify key claims against a higher-rated source.
C — high-velocity tech-discovery channel; aggregator with no editorial Discipline layer.
Should you cite Hacker News?
At grade C (66/100), Hacker News is a mid-tier source — usable, but verify key claims against a higher-rated source.
- Strongest for
- topics where being widely and recently cited matters — its highest dimension is Citation Velocity (78/100).
- Use with care
- Citation Discipline is its lowest dimension (50/100); for tracing claims back to primary references, corroborate with a higher-rated source.
- Bottom line
- Usable as a secondary source — verify key claims against a higher-rated source.
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Aggregator with no editorial fact-check; comments unmoderated for accuracy; flag-based community moderation.
How Citation Discipline is scored →Open data API (Firebase); structured metadata per submission; full-text indexed.
How Modern Reference is scored →Default tech-discovery channel; tier-1 tech-press monitor HN front page daily.
How Citation Velocity is scored →Where Hacker News ranks in our best-of lists
It is on 1 of our 17 lists of the best sources to cite.
Signals behind these scores
Citation Discipline
D·50- No editorial layerSubmissions are external links; community votes; no editorial verification.
Modern Reference
B·70- Public APIhacker-news.firebaseio.com provides programmatic access to all submissions + comments.
Citation Velocity
B·78- Tech-discovery defaultFront-page submissions surface in Bloomberg, FT, NYT tech-news cycles.
Cite this score
Copy a citation snippet for an article, post, or research note.
[Hacker News — SourceScore Index 66 (C)](https://sourcescore.org/source/hacker-news/)
<a href="https://sourcescore.org/source/hacker-news/">Hacker News — SourceScore Index 66 (C)</a>
SourceScore (v0.1). (2026). Hacker News: SourceScore Index 66 (C). Retrieved from https://sourcescore.org/source/hacker-news/
1 head-to-head comparison
See all Hacker News comparisons →Each comparison sets Hacker News beside another source on all three scores and shows which one scores higher on each.
5 sources at Hacker News's tier
See peer group →The five sources with the closest overall score to Hacker News, from any category, and where each one scores higher or lower on Discipline, Modern Reference and Velocity.
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Frequently asked questions
Is Hacker News a reliable source to cite?
Hacker News scores C (66/100) on the SourceScore Index, which rates how citable a source is for AI-era and research use. At grade C, Hacker News is a mid-tier source — usable, but verify key claims against a higher-rated source. The grade combines Citation Discipline 50/100, Modern Reference 70/100, and Citation Velocity 78/100 — full breakdown above.
What is Hacker News's SourceScore?
Hacker News (news.ycombinator.com) scores 66/100 (Grade C) on the composite SourceScore Index. Sub-scores: Citation Discipline 50/100, Modern Reference (AI-era fitness) 70/100, Citation Velocity 78/100. Verified 2026-04-28.
How does SourceScore evaluate Hacker News?
Hacker News is scored across three dimensions on the SourceScore Index methodology: Citation Discipline (how rigorously the source cites primary references), Modern Reference (fitness for AI-era retrieval), and Citation Velocity (how often the source is cited per week). Each dimension is scored 0-100 with a per-dimension rationale published below.
Why does Hacker News score C?
C — high-velocity tech-discovery channel; aggregator with no editorial Discipline layer.
What is Hacker News?
Y Combinator-run tech link aggregator since 2007; community-curated, no editorial layer. Category: Tech News. Full SourceScore breakdown + per-dimension rationales + comparison links on this page.