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Profiling Hacker News users based on their comments
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1 discussion
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Overview
User profiling on Hacker News can be conducted by analyzing their last 1,000 comments using the Algolia Hacker News API, which allows retrieval of comments sorted by date and tagged with the author's username. A JSON feed provides access to an individual user's recent comments for analysis.
Summary from simonwillison.net.
Reports
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simonwillison.net
Profiling Hacker News users based on their comments
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Community reactions
Each reaction summarizes sampled comments from the linked discussion.
Hacker News · simonwillison.net
Hacker News discussion ↗
Historical count: 5 · 5 saved in sample · Historical sample
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Based on 5 sampled comments from this thread. Analyzed 2026-03-22.
- Praise: The discussion highlights how AI-generated content can significantly enhance productivity, with one user reporting 5-10x gains through AI-assisted coding methodologies.
- Praise: The ability to profile users based on their comments showcases the potential of AI in understanding user behavior and preferences, which could lead to more personalized experiences.
- Concern: Concerns about privacy and the implications of AI profiling are evident, as users express discomfort with the idea of verbose outputs revealing personal information.
- Concern: The anxiety surrounding AI's capability to gather and analyze personal data raises ethical questions about user consent and the potential for misuse by corporations or nation-states.