An API would be great for HN since it would allow the community to do all of the sorts of things that it's interested in around rather than on HN. It'd be the

An API would be great for HN since it would allow the community to do all of the sorts of things that it's interested in around rather than on HN. It'd be the ultimate meta-customization. :-) Here's how I would break it down: - List of [top / newest] topics - Number of points - Time submitted - Sumitter - Upvote / downvote calls - List of comments - Submitter - Text - Points - Upvote / downvote calls - User - Description - Comments - Points And then let the mashups flourish. It would seem fitting for HN. I'd be interested enough that I'd do a patch for such if there were a reasonable chance of it being integrated. I personally would really dig being able to see who upvoted what since that would let me do the magic that's my specialty and be able to organize top stories personally based on my a users upvoting patterns, but I suspect that might be undesirable for reason of keeping things anonymous.