HN Explorer

Ask HN: What's up with all the dead links recently?

1 points by gsaines ↗ HN
For the past couple of weeks, I've found that probably 20-30% of front page HN links are unresolvable with "this site can't be reached" errors. Checking the comment thread, it's clear that the links are loading for other people.

Has HN become such a traffic cannon that we bring down anything that hits the front page and I'm always late to the party? Are the sites being brought down by heavy AI bot traffic? What gives?

6 comments

[ 73.2 ms ] story [ 118 ms ] thread
toomuchtodo
Slop filter.
gsaines
Why not just remove the link in that case?
verdverm
automations make mistakes, humans can vouch

HN has a general rule of thumb that they do not delete content, exceptions of course

anenefan
If you mean /news and not /newest, yes some sites can be overwhelmed for a time with HN traffic and sites that repeatedly end up on /news I've heard have been known to adjust 'referer'
davitparks
Dear, I’ve noticed dead links has several issues, not just HN traffic or AI bots. I use TAI Score for website Traffic checking. I trust its 100% compelete AI Athenticity Index Score .