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What is the netiquette of downloading HN? Do you ping Dang and ask him before you blow up his servers? Or do you just assume at this point that every billion do

What is the netiquette of downloading HN? Do you ping Dang and ask him before you blow up his servers? Or do you just assume at this point that every billion dollar tech company is doing this many times over so you probably won't even be noticed?

euroderf 1y ago
Not to mention three-letter agencies, incidentally attaching real names to HN monikers ?
krapp 1y ago
HN has an API, as mentioned in the article, which isn't even rate limited. And all of the data is hosted on Firebase, which is a YC company. It's fine.
- mikeevans 1y ago
  Firebase is owned and operated by Google (has been for a while).
alt227 1y ago
If something is on the public web, it is already being scraped by thousands of bots.
dangoodmanUT 1y ago
there's literally an API they promote. Did you read that part before trying to cancel them?
TZubiri 1y ago
Well, it's called Hacker News, so hacking is fair game, at least in the good sense of the word.
internetter 1y ago
There's literally a public database https://console.cloud.google.com/marketplace/product/y-combinator/hacker-news https://console.cloud.google.com/marketplace/product/y-combi...
- umvi 1y ago
  What if someone from EU invokes "right to be forgotten" and demands HN delete past comments from years ago. Will those deletions be reflected in the public database? Or could you mine the db to discover deleted data?
  - jeremyjh 1y ago
    They need to issue their demand to whoever is hosting their data. If HN has deleted it, they are not hosting it.
- dang 1y ago
  That's an entirely third party project so I doubt they should be listing YC as a partner there.
  - internetter 1y ago
    Huh, yeah that is really misleading. Makes it look like it is by YC.
    - dang 1y ago
      The question is should we ask them to change it...the thought of embarking into the googlemaze with faint hope of encountering a human being makes me le tired.
      - Tomte 1y ago
        It doesn't seem to harm you, trademark issues seem not to be your priority there, and do you really want everyone to mail you asking for permission and/or instructions how to download? I guess the Google thing saves you some trouble. It would have been nice to coordinate that with you, though.
        dang 1y ago
        We've gotten quite a few support emails over the years from people asking us to help them with that product. I always used to wonder why, but now I think I know.

euroderf 1y ago

Not to mention three-letter agencies, incidentally attaching real names to HN monikers ?

krapp 1y ago

HN has an API, as mentioned in the article, which isn't even rate limited. And all of the data is hosted on Firebase, which is a YC company. It's fine.

mikeevans 1y ago
Firebase is owned and operated by Google (has been for a while).

alt227 1y ago

If something is on the public web, it is already being scraped by thousands of bots.

dangoodmanUT 1y ago

there's literally an API they promote. Did you read that part before trying to cancel them?

TZubiri 1y ago

Well, it's called Hacker News, so hacking is fair game, at least in the good sense of the word.

internetter 1y ago

There's literally a public database https://console.cloud.google.com/marketplace/product/y-combinator/hacker-news https://console.cloud.google.com/marketplace/product/y-combi...

umvi 1y ago
What if someone from EU invokes "right to be forgotten" and demands HN delete past comments from years ago. Will those deletions be reflected in the public database? Or could you mine the db to discover deleted data?
- jeremyjh 1y ago
  They need to issue their demand to whoever is hosting their data. If HN has deleted it, they are not hosting it.
dang 1y ago
That's an entirely third party project so I doubt they should be listing YC as a partner there.
- internetter 1y ago
  Huh, yeah that is really misleading. Makes it look like it is by YC.
  - dang 1y ago
    The question is should we ask them to change it...the thought of embarking into the googlemaze with faint hope of encountering a human being makes me le tired.
    - Tomte 1y ago
      It doesn't seem to harm you, trademark issues seem not to be your priority there, and do you really want everyone to mail you asking for permission and/or instructions how to download? I guess the Google thing saves you some trouble. It would have been nice to coordinate that with you, though.
      - dang 1y ago
        We've gotten quite a few support emails over the years from people asking us to help them with that product. I always used to wonder why, but now I think I know.