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home / news.ycombinator.com / item 3742902
+0.03 Show HN: This up votes itself (news.ycombinator.com)
3531 points by olalonde 5088 days ago | 82 comments on HN | Neutral Academic · v3.7 · 2026-02-26
Summary Digital Participation & Privacy Acknowledges
This page is an authentication interface for Hacker News' voting system. Observable evidence suggests moderate structural support for human rights principles including privacy protection (minimal data collection), equal treatment of users, and participatory democracy through voting mechanisms. Minor accessibility gaps reduce the score moderately. Overall, the page reflects a design that acknowledges key rights without extensive advocacy or optimization.
Article Heatmap
Preamble: -0.05 — Preamble P Article 1: +0.05 — Freedom, Equality, Brotherhood 1 Article 2: +0.02 — Non-Discrimination 2 Article 3: 0.00 — Life, Liberty, Security 3 Article 4: 0.00 — No Slavery 4 Article 5: 0.00 — No Torture 5 Article 6: 0.00 — Legal Personhood 6 Article 7: 0.00 — Equality Before Law 7 Article 8: 0.00 — Right to Remedy 8 Article 9: 0.00 — No Arbitrary Detention 9 Article 10: 0.00 — Fair Hearing 10 Article 11: 0.00 — Presumption of Innocence 11 Article 12: +0.13 — Privacy 12 Article 13: 0.00 — Freedom of Movement 13 Article 14: 0.00 — Asylum 14 Article 15: 0.00 — Nationality 15 Article 16: 0.00 — Marriage & Family 16 Article 17: 0.00 — Property 17 Article 18: 0.00 — Freedom of Thought 18 Article 19: +0.25 — Freedom of Expression 19 Article 20: +0.18 — Assembly & Association 20 Article 21: +0.12 — Political Participation 21 Article 22: 0.00 — Social Security 22 Article 23: 0.00 — Work & Equal Pay 23 Article 24: 0.00 — Rest & Leisure 24 Article 25: -0.13 — Standard of Living 25 Article 26: 0.00 — Education 26 Article 27: 0.00 — Cultural Participation 27 Article 28: 0.00 — Social & International Order 28 Article 29: 0.00 — Duties to Community 29 Article 30: 0.00 — No Destruction of Rights 30
Negative Neutral Positive No Data
Aggregates
Weighted Mean +0.03 Unweighted Mean +0.02
Max +0.25 Article 19 Min -0.13 Article 25
Signal 31 No Data 0
Confidence 45% Volatility 0.07 (Low)
Negative 2 Channels E: 0.4 S: 0.6
SETL ND
FW Ratio 52% 15 facts · 14 inferences
Evidence: High: 0 Medium: 5 Low: 3 No Data: 23
Theme Radar
Foundation Security Legal Privacy & Movement Personal Expression Economic & Social Cultural Order & Duties Foundation: 0.01 (3 articles) Security: 0.00 (3 articles) Legal: 0.00 (6 articles) Privacy & Movement: 0.03 (4 articles) Personal: 0.00 (3 articles) Expression: 0.18 (3 articles) Economic & Social: -0.03 (4 articles) Cultural: 0.00 (2 articles) Order & Duties: 0.00 (3 articles)
HN Discussion 20 top-level · 19 replies
olalonde 2012-03-23 00:46 UTC link
Credits to http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3742742 (GreekOphion) for finding the bug.
patrickod 2012-03-23 00:48 UTC link
Interesting. It's almost like a view counter for the article
naz 2012-03-23 00:49 UTC link
This is why you shouldn't allow GET for performing actions. An image tag in an article could do the same thing (e: if it didn't check the referrer).
akavi 2012-03-23 00:49 UTC link
It's amusing watching the vote count skyrocket upward as the curious click on it. It's getting more than a vote a second.

Side Note: I've always wondered why HN doesn't let you reneg on your upvote. I imagine this would have a good deal fewer votes if people could.

donw 2012-03-23 00:52 UTC link
Bonus points for pointing out the bug, and not using it as a way to blast some rubbish marketing to the front page.
im3w1l 2012-03-23 00:56 UTC link
The amount of people proposing POST as a solution, shows the need for this subject to be lifted. There are methods for auto-posting you know...
sams99 2012-03-23 00:59 UTC link
so, we have 3 of these now ... on the front page ... I guess this is a side effect of the community not having anywhere to submit bugs to
cs702 2012-03-23 01:00 UTC link
This looks set to become the all-time #1-ranked submission soon. Compare it to other top-ranked submissions here: http://www.hnsearch.com/search#request/all&q=+&sortb...

[EDIT: corrected link. Thanks ma2rten!]

dustingetz 2012-03-23 01:03 UTC link
is OP a mod? how did he know what his postid would be before he submitted it? spraying [sequential] submissions all at once?

[edit]

numlocked 2012-03-23 01:10 UTC link
An interesting side effect may be to drive registrations, as it will appear to non logged-in users that they have to create an account before viewing the #1 item.
dsrguru 2012-03-23 01:17 UTC link
If allowed to continue without intervention or a bug fix, this thread will stay at the top of HN forever.
liamk 2012-03-23 01:26 UTC link
This could become the most voted up submission of all time.
AndyKelley 2012-03-23 01:27 UTC link
I would have fixed my vote at least, but:

http://news.ycombinator.com/vote?for=3742902&dir=down...

"Can't make that vote."

olalonde 2012-03-23 01:36 UTC link
This is officially the 2nd highest ranking post ever. http://www.hnsearch.com/search#request/all&q=+&sortb... (HN search is a bit delayed)
benatkin 2012-03-23 01:37 UTC link
I took care to click comments.
guynamedloren 2012-03-23 01:38 UTC link
A clever, temporary solution to this would be to change the link to downvote the article and watch it trickle back to zero. Do it, pg!
kaybe 2012-03-23 01:42 UTC link
A slightly unrelated question: What's up with those non-votable non-commentable recruiting links that have been up on the front page recently? Was that another bug exploit?
zt 2012-03-23 01:51 UTC link
When I saw the first one of these, I thought to myself that the front-page wouldn't be overwhelmed by these posts. The whole reason most of us are here is that it is a mature community. As the first post was enough to prove the point, why did OP post it again? (S)He apologize and give credit to "http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3742742 (GreekOphion) for finding the bug", but why make the post at all? What good does it do? "I would send you the karma if I could!" just seems disingenuous.
Garthex 2012-03-23 02:06 UTC link
I'm curious as to whether this post will ever leave the front page. If it keeps getting points at an alarming rate, is there anything in the algorithm to eventually lower the ranking?
MichaelApproved 2012-03-23 02:30 UTC link
Looks like it was removed from the front page by someone. Fun while it lasted...
Vaanir 2012-03-23 00:49 UTC link
Yep, it was 130 as I read this comment. Going over 140 now. Click click click..
olalonde 2012-03-23 00:51 UTC link
Someone in the other thread pointed out it at least checked the referrer header.
kylec 2012-03-23 00:53 UTC link
Enjoy your HN karma, I hope you're allowed to keep it!
GreekOphion 2012-03-23 00:53 UTC link
Wow, your getting more votes than I did.
kijin 2012-03-23 01:00 UTC link
It's trivially easy to forge POST requests, too.

What's really needed is a token (nonce) that is tied to the session. That's like CSRF Prevention 101.

akavi 2012-03-23 01:01 UTC link
That list is clearly not comprehensive (For example, there were multiple Steve Jobs related submissions that got over 1000 points).
bigiain 2012-03-23 01:02 UTC link
I can't help but wonder if someone discovered this before, and realised they'd need to put some sort of throttling in place to keep it under the radar…

(Maybe _that_ explains why so many TechCrunch articles make the front page?)

GreekOphion 2012-03-23 01:05 UTC link
I was trying to figure that out too.
citricsquid 2012-03-23 01:06 UTC link
IDs are sequential, you can predict them with ease. For example (without editing) I can tell you my comment ID (for this comment) will be: 3743005

(edit: nope, I was 3 off, you get the point though, apparently a lot of people are commenting at the moment, ha)

icebraining 2012-03-23 01:06 UTC link
Aren't they sequential? Isn't it just a matter of using the ID of the latest post + 1?
SeoxyS 2012-03-23 01:07 UTC link
Couldn't he have edited the url after posting it?
psychotik 2012-03-23 01:13 UTC link
chucknthem 2012-03-23 01:44 UTC link
Those links are usually recruiting links for YC companies allowed by PG.
bostonvaulter2 2012-03-23 01:48 UTC link
Those are ads for Y-Combinator companies
zt 2012-03-23 01:48 UTC link
YC funded companies can post such links. Most of them are also found at http://news.ycombinator.com/jobs.
ma2rten 2012-03-23 01:48 UTC link
Genius plan, except that there is no downvote for submissions ...
getsat 2012-03-23 02:05 UTC link
POST alone isn't sufficient. You need CSRF protection, too (which, in this case, would protect from same-site request forgery).
cs702 2012-03-23 02:14 UTC link
zt: maturity has nothing to do with this. Hackers appreciate clever hacks, especially those that are self-referential. That's all there is to it.
dbh937 2012-03-23 02:23 UTC link
Moderators might take it off.
Editorial Channel
What the content says
ND
Preamble Preamble
Low Practice

No substantive editorial content present on authentication page.

ND
Article 1 Freedom, Equality, Brotherhood
Low Practice

No editorial content addressing equality or dignity on this page.

ND
Article 2 Non-Discrimination
Low Practice

No content addressing discrimination on authentication page.

ND
Article 3 Life, Liberty, Security

No content addressing right to life and security.

ND
Article 4 No Slavery

No content on slavery or servitude.

ND
Article 5 No Torture

No content on torture or cruel treatment.

ND
Article 6 Legal Personhood

No content on right to recognition as person.

ND
Article 7 Equality Before Law

No content on equal protection under law.

ND
Article 8 Right to Remedy

No content on judicial remedy.

ND
Article 9 No Arbitrary Detention

No content on arbitrary arrest.

ND
Article 10 Fair Hearing

No content on fair trial.

ND
Article 11 Presumption of Innocence

No content on criminal liability.

ND
Article 12 Privacy
Medium Practice

No editorial content on privacy.

ND
Article 13 Freedom of Movement

No content on freedom of movement.

ND
Article 14 Asylum

No content on asylum or refuge.

ND
Article 15 Nationality

No content on nationality.

ND
Article 16 Marriage & Family

No content on marriage or family.

ND
Article 17 Property

No content on property.

ND
Article 18 Freedom of Thought

No content on freedom of thought and conscience.

ND
Article 19 Freedom of Expression
Medium Practice

No editorial content on free expression visible.

ND
Article 20 Assembly & Association
Medium Practice

No editorial content on assembly or association visible.

ND
Article 21 Political Participation
Medium Practice

No editorial content on democratic participation visible.

ND
Article 22 Social Security

No content on social security or welfare.

ND
Article 23 Work & Equal Pay

No content on labor or work.

ND
Article 24 Rest & Leisure

No content on rest and leisure.

ND
Article 25 Standard of Living
Medium Practice

No editorial content on health or welfare.

ND
Article 26 Education

No content on education.

ND
Article 27 Cultural Participation

No content on culture or intellectual property.

ND
Article 28 Social & International Order

No content on social order.

ND
Article 29 Duties to Community

No content on duties and limitations.

ND
Article 30 No Destruction of Rights

No content on prevention of rights destruction.
Structural Channel
What the site does
Domain Context Profile
Element Modifier Affects Note
Privacy +0.05
Article 12
Hacker News collects minimal user data for authentication. No explicit privacy policy visible on this page, but authentication-only data collection suggests baseline privacy awareness.
Terms of Service —
Terms of service not visible on provided page content.
Accessibility -0.05
Article 25
Login form lacks ARIA labels and explicit accessibility features in visible markup. Standard HTML forms suggest moderate accessibility but not optimized.
Mission +0.02
Article 19
Hacker News mission emphasizes free speech and open discourse. Platform design supports community participation.
Editorial Code —
No editorial content visible on this authentication page.
Ownership 0.00
Hacker News is a well-known platform with transparent ownership under YCombinator. Does not negatively affect this evaluation.
Access Model +0.08
Article 19 Article 20
Free registration and account creation required for participation. Login barrier creates dual-access model but no paywall observed. Supports universal access principle.
Ad/Tracking —
No advertising or tracking visible on this authentication page.
+0.15
Article 19 Freedom of Expression
Medium Practice
Structural
+0.15
Context Modifier
+0.10
SETL
ND

Platform structure enables voting mechanism (apparent from URL parameters for=3742902&dir=up), which supports user expression. Authentication requirement moderately gates participation but does not censor content or viewpoints.

+0.12
Article 21 Political Participation
Medium Practice
Structural
+0.12
Context Modifier
0.00
SETL
ND

Voting mechanism and account system enable participatory governance through community curation (upvote/downvote). One user, one vote structure (inferred from URL for single user voting on single item) reflects democratic principle.

+0.10
Article 20 Assembly & Association
Medium Practice
Structural
+0.10
Context Modifier
+0.08
SETL
ND

Platform structure enables community participation through voting and discussion mechanisms (inferred from URL parameters). Authentication requirement supports moderation without preventing association.

+0.08
Article 12 Privacy
Medium Practice
Structural
+0.08
Context Modifier
+0.05
SETL
ND

Authentication system requests only username and password, minimizing personal data collection. No tracking pixels, social buttons, or analytics visible on provided content.

+0.05
Article 1 Freedom, Equality, Brotherhood
Low Practice
Structural
+0.05
Context Modifier
0.00
SETL
ND

Authentication system treats all users identically through same login mechanism, structurally supporting equal treatment.

+0.02
Article 2 Non-Discrimination
Low Practice
Structural
+0.02
Context Modifier
0.00
SETL
ND

Login form does not explicitly request protected characteristics (race, sex, religion, national origin) for account creation.

0.00
Article 3 Life, Liberty, Security
Structural
0.00
Context Modifier
0.00
SETL
ND

Authentication page does not engage with security or safety provisions.

0.00
Article 4 No Slavery
Structural
0.00
Context Modifier
0.00
SETL
ND

No relevant structural elements.

0.00
Article 5 No Torture
Structural
0.00
Context Modifier
0.00
SETL
ND

No relevant structural elements.

0.00
Article 6 Legal Personhood
Structural
0.00
Context Modifier
0.00
SETL
ND

No relevant structural elements.

0.00
Article 7 Equality Before Law
Structural
0.00
Context Modifier
0.00
SETL
ND

No relevant structural elements.

0.00
Article 8 Right to Remedy
Structural
0.00
Context Modifier
0.00
SETL
ND

No relevant structural elements.

0.00
Article 9 No Arbitrary Detention
Structural
0.00
Context Modifier
0.00
SETL
ND

No relevant structural elements.

0.00
Article 10 Fair Hearing
Structural
0.00
Context Modifier
0.00
SETL
ND

No relevant structural elements.

0.00
Article 11 Presumption of Innocence
Structural
0.00
Context Modifier
0.00
SETL
ND

No relevant structural elements.

0.00
Article 13 Freedom of Movement
Structural
0.00
Context Modifier
0.00
SETL
ND

No relevant structural elements.

0.00
Article 14 Asylum
Structural
0.00
Context Modifier
0.00
SETL
ND

No relevant structural elements.

0.00
Article 15 Nationality
Structural
0.00
Context Modifier
0.00
SETL
ND

No relevant structural elements.

0.00
Article 16 Marriage & Family
Structural
0.00
Context Modifier
0.00
SETL
ND

No relevant structural elements.

0.00
Article 17 Property
Structural
0.00
Context Modifier
0.00
SETL
ND

No relevant structural elements.

0.00
Article 18 Freedom of Thought
Structural
0.00
Context Modifier
0.00
SETL
ND

No relevant structural elements.

0.00
Article 22 Social Security
Structural
0.00
Context Modifier
0.00
SETL
ND

No relevant structural elements.

0.00
Article 23 Work & Equal Pay
Structural
0.00
Context Modifier
0.00
SETL
ND

No relevant structural elements.

0.00
Article 24 Rest & Leisure
Structural
0.00
Context Modifier
0.00
SETL
ND

No relevant structural elements.

0.00
Article 26 Education
Structural
0.00
Context Modifier
0.00
SETL
ND

No relevant structural elements.

0.00
Article 27 Cultural Participation
Structural
0.00
Context Modifier
0.00
SETL
ND

No relevant structural elements.

0.00
Article 28 Social & International Order
Structural
0.00
Context Modifier
0.00
SETL
ND

No relevant structural elements.

0.00
Article 29 Duties to Community
Structural
0.00
Context Modifier
0.00
SETL
ND

No relevant structural elements.

0.00
Article 30 No Destruction of Rights
Structural
0.00
Context Modifier
0.00
SETL
ND

No relevant structural elements.

-0.05
Preamble Preamble
Low Practice
Structural
-0.05
Context Modifier
0.00
SETL
ND

Page structure implements authentication requirement before participation, which creates access barrier but supports platform integrity and community governance.

-0.08
Article 25 Standard of Living
Medium Practice
Structural
-0.08
Context Modifier
-0.05
SETL
ND

Login form lacks explicit accessibility features (ARIA labels, keyboard navigation cues, contrast ratio specifications). Design appears functional but not optimized for users with disabilities or diverse abilities.
Supplementary Signals
Epistemic Quality
0.13 low claims
Sources
0.0
Evidence
0.0
Uncertainty
0.0
Purpose
0.8
Propaganda Flags
0 techniques detected
Solution Orientation
0.30 problem only
Reader Agency
0.5
Emotional Tone
measured
Valence
0.0
Arousal
0.0
Dominance
0.2
Stakeholder Voice
0.00 1 perspective
Temporal Framing
present immediate
Geographic Scope
global
Complexity
accessible low jargon none
Transparency
0.50
✗ Author
Event Timeline 20 events
2026-02-26 06:23 dlq Dead-lettered after 1 attempts: Show HN: This up votes itself - -
2026-02-26 06:03 dlq Dead-lettered after 1 attempts: Show HN: This up votes itself - -
2026-02-26 05:59 credit_exhausted Credit balance too low, retrying in 329s - -
2026-02-26 05:56 dlq Dead-lettered after 1 attempts: Show HN: This up votes itself - -
2026-02-26 05:52 dlq Dead-lettered after 1 attempts: Show HN: This up votes itself - -
2026-02-26 05:50 credit_exhausted Credit balance too low, retrying in 359s - -
2026-02-26 05:46 dlq Dead-lettered after 1 attempts: Show HN: This up votes itself - -
2026-02-26 05:44 credit_exhausted Credit balance too low, retrying in 321s - -
2026-02-26 05:34 credit_exhausted Credit balance too low, retrying in 323s - -
2026-02-26 05:32 dlq Dead-lettered after 1 attempts: Show HN: This up votes itself - -
2026-02-26 05:30 dlq Dead-lettered after 1 attempts: Show HN: This up votes itself - -
2026-02-26 05:23 dlq Dead-lettered after 1 attempts: Show HN: This up votes itself - -
2026-02-26 05:22 credit_exhausted Credit balance too low, retrying in 333s - -
2026-02-26 05:22 dlq Dead-lettered after 1 attempts: Show HN: This up votes itself - -
2026-02-26 05:21 credit_exhausted Credit balance too low, retrying in 283s - -
2026-02-26 05:20 credit_exhausted Credit balance too low, retrying in 260s - -
2026-02-26 05:17 dlq Dead-lettered after 1 attempts: Show HN: This up votes itself - -
2026-02-26 05:12 credit_exhausted Credit balance too low, retrying in 270s - -
2026-02-26 05:11 dlq Dead-lettered after 1 attempts: Show HN: This up votes itself - -
2026-02-26 05:11 credit_exhausted Credit balance too low, retrying in 241s - -
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build 1686d6e+nio6 · deployed 2026-02-26 06:45 UTC · evaluated 2026-02-26 06:43:03 UTC