Race to the Bottom
Other
opinion survey
SHOW HN2026
61points
50comments
#1,057of 4,366 in 2026
Top 25%of 2026 by points
How HN took it
RoastedHalf or more of the comments are critical
4 positive, 9 neutral or asking, 0 mixed, 25 critical, out of 38 comments about the project. Thread score -0.50.
Idea: 1 for, 14 againstDesign: 1 for, 10 againstExecution: 0 for, 1 against
The thread, comment by comment
Each row is a top-level comment and its replies, in HN's order. Select a cell to open that comment on HN.
positive neutral or mixed critical about another commenter or something else the maker
What HN said
What people liked
Simple and effective hot-or-not style voting
From 1 comment
simple and effective. love the hot or not style for opinions.
photonair on HN
Leaderboard is informative
From 1 comment
Interesting idea -- ran through it for a few minutes and thought the leaderboard was informative. Definitely could expand this!
Torgin on HN
Objections
Industry descriptions are biased and framing skews results
From 3 comments
An interesting experiment could be re-wording some of these and seeing how different the rankings are. So have an alternate card titled "Promoting your country" rather than…
madamelic on HNThe context or description shown for each "industry" is a massive injection of bias. For example, Cannabis is "Cannabis cultivation, dispensaries, and marijuana-related…
hjkl0 on HNThe framing of some of these is interesting. Not a criticism, just an observation. I think many trigger a visceral negative reaction, like animal testing, but most of these can…
danpalmer on HN
Many options are broad or lump good and bad uses together
From 3 comments
An interesting experiment could be re-wording some of these and seeing how different the rankings are. So have an alternate card titled "Promoting your country" rather than…
madamelic on HNThe framing of some of these is interesting. Not a criticism, just an observation. I think many trigger a visceral negative reaction, like animal testing, but most of these can…
danpalmer on HNSome of these tripped me up as well. Oil & Gas are necessary for a country's survival. Good! The Oil & Gas Industry operate political lobbying and climate change disinformation…
dlivingston on HN
Rankings feel inconsistent and opaque
From 3 comments
Rankings not all consistent: ``` - private military 6 but defense 39; - surveillance tech 7, data brokers 9, but facial recognition 14, social media 17, advertising 34; -…
jsrozner on HNThe front page mentions that the intention is to capture the public opinion. I felt that looking at the rankings didn't really meaningfully give me any useful information about a…
readonkeyless on HNThe context or description shown for each "industry" is a massive injection of bias. For example, Cannabis is "Cannabis cultivation, dispensaries, and marijuana-related…
hjkl0 on HN
No way to say both options are good or express nuance
From 2 comments
This needs like a "both of these things are good" button.
donatj on HNThe front page mentions that the intention is to capture the public opinion. I felt that looking at the rankings didn't really meaningfully give me any useful information about a…
readonkeyless on HN
Small text and no progress indicator
From 3 comments
Text sizes for the subtitles are very small on mobile. The thin font doesn’t help either.
pimlottc on HNworthwhile to give a sense of how many times to click in order to get through to all the categories.. like a completion bar. have a feeling that i haven't seen all but have seen…
mli3w on HNI thought this was good but then the questions never stopped, not a progress bar in sight, eventually when I clicked the ranking list, I didn’t care because it wasn’t based on my…
adithyassekhar on HN
Requests
Allow intransitive preference detection or consistency checks
From 3 comments
Would be cool if it ran until you had an intransitive preference. A is worse than B, which is worse than C, which is worse than A. I thought the point was to show how ranking…
jjmarr on HNyeah. I was waiting for something to get at the consistency of what I was clicking i.e. if I think A is better then B and B is better then C why do I think C is better then A.
hackeraccount on HNIt just occurred to me there's an even bigger missed opportunity with the rankings. Because every "survey question" is a 1 to 1 comparison between two concepts, the most…
hjkl0 on HN
Add a text input for stated positions
From 1 comment
The front page mentions that the intention is to capture the public opinion. I felt that looking at the rankings didn't really meaningfully give me any useful information about a…
readonkeyless on HN
Show regional or per-state breakdowns
From 1 comment
Thanks, sadly it didn't pick-up on HN The diff per region/state would be fantastic! The stats are shared, nothing "per user". At first I just wanted to see if it would trigger…
maxwellito on HN
Add a completion bar
From 1 comment
worthwhile to give a sense of how many times to click in order to get through to all the categories.. like a completion bar. have a feeling that i haven't seen all but have seen…
mli3w on HN
Questions
Does it store user data or reset each start?
From 1 comment
What an interesting idea! Quick question: Do you store user data in any way or each "start" resets previous choices? What`s your plan for this? A public platform? Maybe…
DaryaHr on HN