Hacker News.love – 22 projects Hacker News didn't love
hackernews.love
February 23, 2026
15 min read
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59/100
Summary
Many projects initially dismissed by Hacker News have since become successful, illustrating the unpredictability of innovation. Users can create a Linux-based system using an FTP account, curlftpfs for local mounting, and version control systems like SVN or CVS.
Key Takeaways
- Dropbox IPO'd in 2018 at a $12 billion valuation after being initially dismissed as a bad idea on Hacker News.
- GitHub was perceived as merely a git host but was acquired by Microsoft in 2018 for $7.5 billion and now hosts over 100 million developers.
- Bitcoin's value increased from fractions of a cent in 2009 to over $100,000 by 2024, despite initial skepticism and low engagement in discussions about it.
- DuckDuckGo grew to over 100 million daily search queries and became the default search engine in many privacy-focused browsers, valued at over $600 million, despite early criticism of its name.
Community Sentiment
Positives
- DuckDuckGo has significantly improved its search quality over the years, now providing a competitive alternative to Google, which is crucial for user privacy.
- The response to Warp's updates shows that addressing user criticisms can lead to increased popularity and satisfaction, highlighting the importance of user feedback in product development.
Concerns
- The sentiment around DuckDuckGo's initial utility was quite negative, with users finding it less useful compared to Google, indicating challenges in competing search engine markets.
- The comment about the AI piece suggests a lack of depth in the analysis, implying that the insights may not be as valuable as they could be, which raises concerns about the quality of AI-generated content.
