The Most Popular Blogs of Hacker News in 2025
Perceived self‑promotion and “halo effect”
- Several commenters note that top bloggers are also prolific HN commenters, which makes the site feel like a close community.
- Others feel there is a “halo effect” around certain personalities: self-links in nearly every comment feel like tireless self‑promotion with low utility.
- Some argue HN tolerates this from favored users despite rules against routine self‑linking; attempts to call it out can be flagged until the pattern becomes too obvious.
- A few participants are uneasy with self‑promotion in general, seeing it as inherently self‑serving, while others defend it as “learning generously” and sharing useful material, especially when posts are genuinely helpful and ad‑free.
- Several people stress that persistent self‑promotion clearly “works” and is a major factor in why some authors dominate the list.
Popularity dynamics and HN behavior
- Commenters highlight how some historically popular writers dropped in rank largely because they published less in 2025.
- Others see HN as fickle and clique‑ish: once the community “adopts” an author, even mediocre posts can rocket to the front page, while similar posts from unknowns would die in “new”.
- There’s concern that this “groupism” degrades signal‑to‑noise and crowds out other voices.
- The importance of regular submitters is emphasized: one blogger reports that when a single habitual submitter disappeared, their HN visibility collapsed.
Dataset, methodology, and tooling
- The ranking data is exposed as CSV with open CORS, enabling experiments via browser tools and SQL-on-CSV demos.
- Inclusion requires at least 500 total upvotes across front-page posts, and only submissions with ≥20 points are counted. This explains why some blogs with a few popular posts don’t appear.
- The dataset is broadly inclusive by default, with a curated exclusion list for non‑blogs and top Alexa domains; some non‑personal sites still slip through.
- Metadata (author names, bios, domain merges) is maintained via a public GitHub repo and PRs; several corrections and exclusions were made in the thread.
Blogs, formats, and the value of “real work”
- Multiple bloggers share personal stats and express pride or disappointment about their rankings, but also reflect on how long‑term consistency compounds readership.
- A recurring theme: top blogs are valued for hands‑on, reality‑checked work rather than SEO or AI‑generated filler—“I actually did this and here’s what happened.”
- One creator explains a “blog‑first, video‑second” workflow: text remains better for depth and reference, but video pays the bills; affiliate links bring relatively modest income.
- Commenters debate text vs video: text is faster to search/skim and better for targeted answers, while video is preferred by some for exploratory learning or passive consumption.
- Tools that surface and transcribe content from walled gardens (TikTok, Discord, etc.) into durable blog posts are praised as increasingly important for preserving technical knowledge.
Miscellaneous observations
- Some well‑known sites are missing or ranked low in 2025 due to not publishing that year or reduced activity.
- The list’s composition prompts reflection on owning content (POSSE) vs relying on platforms and on how even a few high‑scoring posts can propel a blog into the rankings.