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What incentive does Hacker News have to allow access via an API? At the moment, introducing an API would cost YC money because it would take time to develop an
by lwhi 16y ago
What incentive does Hacker News have to allow access via an API? At the moment, introducing an API would cost YC money because it would take time to develop and it would potentially increase server costs.
However, allowing others to do the job seems less troublesome.
Creating artificial restrictions to _prevent_ other people from doing so, seems like effort.
I would imagine that the owners of a site would only seek to stem the wholesale flow of information to another property, when inaction is likely to lead to a loss in value.
Where is the value in HN? It could be argued that the value lies in the posts and the related combined wisdom, but I think the true value is related to attention and focus. We come to HN to participate. If the content is allowed to spread to third-party applications (via an API), this primary source of value is lost.
- davewiner 16y agoHow many Ycombinator startups build on the APIs of other sites? Wouldn't it be reasonable to expect them to reciprocate?
- lwhi 16y agoIt would be nice to expect HN to reciprocate, but I don't think that it's likely. API access always needs to be part of a strategy, because granting it will change the landscape within which your business operates.