Thanks for pointing that out. You are right. It doesn't seem to have anything to do specifically with the black ribbon (contrary to the popular belief [1]). I

Thanks for pointing that out. You are right. It doesn't seem to have anything to do specifically with the black ribbon (contrary to the popular belief [1]). I checked the old HN source on Github, and it seems to be used in quite a few places [2]. It is also used on this very page [3]. [1]: https://hn.algolia.com/?q=s.gif https://hn.algolia.com/?q=s.gif [2]: https://github.com/wting/hackernews/search?q=hspace https://github.com/wting/hackernews/search?q=hspace [3]: I hope the Missouri governor won't prosecute me for clicking on view source, so much for the "Show Me" state :-)