Is Show HN Dead? No, But It's Drowning

hello@arthurcnops.blog (Arthur Cnops) — Tue, 17 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Show HN is Hacker News’ “showcase” page where makers show and discuss what they’ve built. A few days ago I shared my own project. I had good fun building that useless little internet experience. The post quickly disappeared from Show HN's first page, amongst the rest of the vibecoded pulp. To be clear, I'm fine with that, but the behavior was interesting to see. So I pulled some data to look closer.

What's Happening

Show HN of course isn't dead. You could even say it's more alive than ever. What has changed is the volume of posts and engagement per post. It's only natural when more projects are being built in a single weekend. There's less "Proof of Work".

From the business side of this, Johan Halse recently used the term Sideprocalypse: the end of the small indie developer's dream. Every idea has been built, marketed better, and SEO'd into oblivion by someone with more money.

Some cool projects aren't getting through this noise, which is a pity. Here are a few I thought were interesting:

I just upvoted them!

Now, let's look at some data.

Volume Is Exploding

The Graveyard Is Growing

Show HN started out better than regular submissions. Now it's significantly worse.

The Shrinking Window

How long does a Show HN post stay on page 1 before being pushed off? During peak hours (US daytime):

Discussion Is Dying Too

So Is Show HN Dead?

No. There's just more noise, and less opportunity to get attention and have a discussion with other folks on HN about your project. Some gems go completely unnoticed. Maybe something for HN to think about: how do these subjective "gems" get more spotlight? How does HN remain the coolest place to talk about the coolest tech?