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  3. /The Subversive Hyperlink (2024)
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  3. /The Subversive Hyperlink (2024)
Nov 19, 2025 at 2:59 PM EST

The Subversive Hyperlink (2024)

ColinWright
36 points
13 comments

Mood

thoughtful

Sentiment

mixed

Category

tech

Key topics

Web Development

Link Rot

Online Content

Debate intensity20/100

The article discusses the evolving role of hyperlinks on the web and their potential subversive nature, sparking a discussion about the challenges of maintaining online presence and the impact of AI on content discovery.

Snapshot generated from the HN discussion

Discussion Activity

Active discussion

First comment

2h

Peak period

12

Day 1

Avg / period

12

Comment distribution12 data points
Loading chart...

Based on 12 loaded comments

Key moments

  1. 01Story posted

    Nov 19, 2025 at 2:59 PM EST

    4d ago

    Step 01
  2. 02First comment

    Nov 19, 2025 at 5:25 PM EST

    2h after posting

    Step 02
  3. 03Peak activity

    12 comments in Day 1

    Hottest window of the conversation

    Step 03
  4. 04Latest activity

    Nov 20, 2025 at 8:09 AM EST

    4d ago

    Step 04

Generating AI Summary...

Analyzing up to 500 comments to identify key contributors and discussion patterns

Discussion (13 comments)
Showing 12 comments of 13
runamuck
4d ago
2 replies
I own and make my own website. But Google search stopped ranking me high about two years ago (down from 3k/day to about 70), and sometimes I feel that my life's work just gets reduced to small icons at the end of GenAI responses. But I continue to do it because I love to write and create, and sometimes readers (if they find my site) reach out. I got a "thank you" from someone in the Congo!
samdoesnothing
4d ago
1 reply
What is your website about?
mikae1
4d ago
Follow the (subversive) hyperlink (which technically isn't a hyperlink on HN profile pages :D)... https://news.ycombinator.com/user?id=runamuck
AndrewStephens
4d ago
I am in the same boat, although I never managed 3k a day. At some point Google just stopped indexing most of my old posts.

I also love getting real feedback from readers and make a point of emailing owners of blogs I enjoy.

akersten
4d ago
1 reply
Lest we forget another item missing from the list: they want to be paid when you link to them!

[0] https://ccianet.org/advocacy/link-taxes/

sothatsit
4d ago
1 reply
I despise these laws! Australia made Google pay the big news websites for linking to them, which is just insane to me. It inevitably favours the big news providers that can negotiate directly with Google, and the laws even stop tech companies from just removing the news companies from their search results as well. It very much feels like taking from one big company to prop up other big companies... Who benefits again?!
graemep
4d ago
> It inevitably favours the big news providers that can negotiate directly with Google,

That is a feature, not a bug.

> It very much feels like taking from one big company to prop up other big companies... Who benefits again?

The big news companies, who tend to support the political status quo. The parties big enough to get into government are very cosy with them (not in Australia in particular, in most places).

> and the laws even stop tech companies from just removing the news companies from their search results as well.

Does that apply to all search engines? In that case it creates a barrier to entry by by making it harder for smaller competitors to emerge, so it favours Google.

tshaddox
4d ago
1 reply
An older pattern (which is arguably more well-intended) is when a site transforms all links to first go to a splash screen that says "In 5 seconds you will leave this website, so please be careful and don't blame us if you see anything bad!"

You used to see this all the time for user-generated content on web forums. I don't see it much these days.

It's worth noting that the U.S Web Design System specifically says to not use these "roadblock notices" for external links: https://designsystem.digital.gov/components/link/

pluralmonad
4d ago
AFAIK, Steam still does this for most external links. I think with some reminder to not give out your steam creds.
ballpug
4d ago
Calling it "multimodal" for diffusing language is vestigial. One terminology for a technical way for encoding TLS/async protocols is through our HTTPS client, which is either a crawler or bypasses the MPC service. gtk-3 daemon is a decent lua library to start extricating.
int0x29
4d ago
North Korean state media (KCNA) used to use post requests for everything breaking hyperlinks and bookmarks in the process. I suspect this was to deliberately ensure a sort of memory hole process for everything that they had said in the past.
brycewray
4d ago
(2024)

1 more comments available on Hacker News

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ID: 45984333Type: storyLast synced: 11/22/2025, 9:49:52 AM

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