Products · Product
JSON
Raised as a usability problem by 58 people on Hacker News over 17 years (2010–2026), in 53 threads.
No issue was raised by at least 3 people in 3 threads this year.
- 1
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Every issue, all time, most people first
Writing JSON by hand needs many brackets, quotes and commasUnreviewed
20102026- Strict syntax rules make JSON annoying to write by hand, e.g. no trailing commas or comments2023-07-02
- Default JSON formatting is too vertical, making mixed data long and hard to read2022-11-29
- JSON output is hard for humans to read2022-11-03
No comments allowed, which is annoying in config filesUnreviewed
20102026- Without comments, JSON is essentially unusable for files humans need to edit2026-07-23
- No comments makes JSON configuration files hard to use2026-03-14
- Can't add comments to JSON, making it hard for people to edit by hand2024-08-14
Missing commas cause frequent errors and unclear error locationsUnreviewed
20102026- Trailing comma rules cause frequent syntax errors when hand-writing config2021-10-28
- People misplace commas and brackets and can't figure out how to fix them2021-10-28
- Strict comma rules cause frequent errors, and parsers poorly report where the missing comma is2020-09-14
One typo in a hand-edited file breaks the whole thingUnreviewed
20102026- Editing requires hand-editing JSON text, and save failures don't explain what's broken2025-03-14
- A single typo in a hand-edited JSON file breaks the whole thing2024-10-04
- Inconsistent error handling across JSON parsers makes failures hard to predict2016-10-26
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 50 complaints
- Without comments, JSON is essentially unusable for files humans need to edit2026-07-23
- After zooming in, parts of the page move outside the view and cannot be scrolled to2026-04-03
- No comments makes JSON configuration files hard to use2026-03-14
- Hard to write and edit by hand, escaping and multi-line strings awkward2025-09-23
- Editing requires hand-editing JSON text, and save failures don't explain what's broken2025-03-14
- Tree diagram requires horizontal panning, making it hard to read and use on mobile2024-11-27
- Indentation-dependent syntax and abused specs make them hard for humans to read2024-11-04
- A single typo in a hand-edited JSON file breaks the whole thing2024-10-04
- Carousel advances too fast and doesn't pause on hover, so users can't read images2024-09-24
- Can't add comments to JSON, making it hard for people to edit by hand2024-08-14
- Typos in struct tags are silently ignored, with no compile error2024-06-10
- Pinch zoom and drag scrolling are broken on iOS Safari; zoom controls vanish2024-03-11
- Strict syntax rules make JSON annoying to write by hand, e.g. no trailing commas or comments2023-07-02
- Hard to walk a tree: no parent access, awkward arrays for ordered or repeated nodes2023-04-06
- Validation errors for oneOf schemas give no pointer to the problematic field2023-01-31
- Default JSON formatting is too vertical, making mixed data long and hard to read2022-11-29
- JSON output is hard for humans to read2022-11-03
- Button is disabled on mobile though the editor itself works2022-08-28
- Annoying to write by hand; no comments or trailing commas2022-08-07
- Syntax errors give unhelpful messages, forcing manual removal of nodes to locate the parse error2022-06-08
- Curly brackets, nesting and lack of formatting make JSON hard for humans to read2022-06-08
- Generating JSON from shell scripts is a constant pain point2022-02-06
- Hand-editing JSON and YAML config files is error-prone and hard to get right2022-01-24
- Trailing comma rules cause frequent syntax errors when hand-writing config2021-10-28
- People misplace commas and brackets and can't figure out how to fix them2021-10-28
- Too many required quotes and commas make it tedious to type and reorder items2021-10-15
- Listing tens of thousands of files is very slow, so restarts take forever2021-02-28
- Filter condition unexpectedly changes the output, making its semantics confusing2021-02-23
- Strict comma rules cause frequent errors, and parsers poorly report where the missing comma is2020-09-14
- JSON's lack of comments is an annoyance for config files2020-04-05
- Hard to add comments and very error-prone, with YAML whitespace causing mistakes2020-03-23
- Generic error popups repeat unhelpful parser messages, so users can't tell what input caused the failure2019-12-29
- Writing JSON by hand is tedious because every string must be quoted2019-10-29
- Description is unclear and jargon-heavy, so readers must read the whole readme to understand it2019-09-19
- Strings need escaping, so JSON files become hard to read2019-08-19
- Quoted keys and no comments make it unintuitive for JavaScript users2019-04-04
- Hard to hand-edit: no comments and picky about comma placement2018-12-25
- JSON config files cannot hold comments, so scripts in package.json are hard to document2018-07-15
- Braces and quotes make JSON too hard to work with2018-06-23
- Writing JSON by hand needs many brackets, quotes and commas2018-06-20
- Strict quoting, bracket and comma rules make hand-editing error-prone, with no comments2018-01-14
- Hand-writing JSON configs is painful: no comments and every key must be quoted2017-05-11
- JSON is annoying to write by hand compared to YAML or HOCON2016-11-06
- Inconsistent error handling across JSON parsers makes failures hard to predict2016-10-26
- Without comments, users must keep switching between documentation and the config file2016-10-26
- Mandatory quotes on names make it annoying to write by hand2016-07-31
- JSON.parse won't return dates, so developers must know date fields in advance and coerce them manually2016-05-19
- Developers must read docs to learn date formats and field shapes, with weak schema tooling2016-01-29
- Quotation marks required around every literal make writing configs tedious2015-11-24
- Quotes on every key make it annoying to type and read2015-11-05