Ask HN site and startup posts

Raised as a usability problem by 35 people on Hacker News over 18 years (2007–2024), in 35 threads.

People raised many different problems with Ask HN site and startup posts, but no single problem has yet been raised by 3 people in 3 different months and threads.

Unreviewed issues were grouped by machine: Claude Haiku labelled each comment as a usability complaint, named what it's about and summed up the problem in a line, and a small model grouped similar problems. Nobody has checked them by hand. Expect mistakes.

The newest 36 complaints

Signup button fails silently with no error message explaining why2024-12-16
Menus open above the scroll view, layout shifts, and a cookie window blocks the whole page2024-09-03
Repeated spam posts make searching the page frustrating2023-12-07
Autocorrect and haptics silently turn off below 15% battery, making typing hard2023-09-26
Account locked randomly, and unlocking it is slow and unnecessarily complex2021-12-17
Mobile pop-ups hide much of the screen; answers expanded by default make navigating to next question cumbersome2020-03-11
Can't tell which city is selected; city label is small and low-contrast2018-02-06
Fixed-width formatting is very hard to read on mobile2018-01-02
Jobs show as nearby but open to a wrong location after clicking2017-05-01
Search gives no results until a language is picked, and the prompt is easy to miss2016-07-02
Full-page ads pop up even when the app is not in focus2016-06-01
Can't find any internship listings at the linked page2016-04-03
The site is unusable when viewed in Firefox2016-01-11
Submit needs an unlabeled Enter-key step; mouse users miss the instruction and can't complete signup2015-05-19
Facebook and Twitter links beside signup look like social login, which is confusing2012-06-25
Feedback button is hidden and calls to action are hard to find2011-12-16
Typed text gets published to the internet immediately, with no chance to review or stop it2011-08-12
Must sign up before seeing what the site does or how it works2011-01-05
Create bookmark link doesn't work; search field barely visible on dark background; can't figure out how to save color2010-12-23
Card-flip animations on tab taps and slow slides bog down quick navigation2010-07-06
Keyboard users can't reach the state dropdown; the JavaScript is slow2010-05-07
UI is confusing, so first-time visitors can't grasp the service's value2010-02-15
Pop-up overlays appear for nearly every click, disrupting browsing flow2009-12-01
Search button is hard to notice; dragging the map deselects the chosen deal2009-12-01
Shows blank screen with non-intuitive way to turn on celebrities2009-10-08
Page forces horizontal scrolling unless the browser is very wide, and homepage text is jarring2009-08-22
Red BID button opens the user's auctions list instead of bidding, confusing people2009-08-19
Autocomplete fills in unintended countries, like UK becoming UKraine, when typing2009-04-28
Visitors can't tell what the site does or what map icons mean2009-03-22
Kept waiting for content to load under tag cloud; nothing appeared2009-01-21
"please wait" delay appears on every page and after clicking rating stars2009-01-14
Navigation is so tall that games are below the fold on small laptop screens2008-12-08
Takes 3 or 4 steps before user can do anything useful; too much admin clutter2008-11-18
Unclear what the product offers and why to use it, and confusing sign-up/author fields2008-07-29
First-time users can't tell what to do or what a challenge is2008-05-14
Sign-up and login screens look inconsistent with the home page and each other2007-12-22