Ask HN: dev.txt, a robots.txt/humans.txt for tech stack - what do you think?

7 points by zalew 14y ago ↗ HN

When we see a website/platform we like, we devs always wonder: what is it built on? Often we check out the source looking for traces, etc. Sometimes we pollute the UI with all that 'powered by' braggadoccio (guilty as charged). Maybe we should adapt a loose standard file similar to robots.txt and humans.txt, let's call it dev.txt where we'd list the tech stack for the curious. Example: http://zalew.net/dev.txt

What do you think?

4 comments

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paulhauggis 14y ago ↗

I suppose, but doesn't this give potential hackers one more piece of information?

zalew 14y ago ↗

Obviously you don't have to list the details you don't feel comfortable with or the ones that could be a potential threat.

btw http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Security_through_obscurity

vineet 14y ago ↗

I would like to see it. It reminds me of the SourceMap work that was on HN just yesterday.

Anyway, I am not sure how this site works - but I find it helpful: http://builtwith.com/

zalew 14y ago ↗

yeah, there was also a similar extension for FF, but it all checks only the frontend