Ask PG: No more new accounts at HN?

9 points by mayank ↗ HN
The option for creating an account seems to have been removed -- is this a temporary thing or a more permanent change?

12 comments

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Wow, I hadn't noticed this.

I really hope HN hasn't stopped accepting signups.

EDIT: In the unlikely event that signups are stopped forever, I wonder what an account would be worth on the black market?

Just created this account. Perhaps it is human error on your part.
This is my login screen: http://imgur.com/w8gLXmY Upvotes on this story suggest that others are seeing the same thing too.
Same for me. Even in Incognito Mode I can't see any way to sign up.
For upvotes, submissions, and replies, the login page also has as a signup form. However, there seems to be a secondary login page (linked to at the top right) that has no such form as is shown in that screenshot in the comment you replied to.
It was mentioned before to help cut back on spam / sudden rushes of accounts. You must click "reply" on a comment for the prompt.
You have to click submit to find the account creation page. I'm thinking that it's a subtle way by pg to slow down new signups.
Aah, interesting approach.
In particular for spammers.

A few months ago we really cracked down on spammers. Anyone who looks at /newest with showdead turned on has probably noticed the difference.

It's probably hard to tell, but I would assume HN is the least fertile spamming ground for miles around - we all seem to have fairly well tuned netizen antennae

That said what if you turned up the requirements - for example a uuid in a TXT entry on a domain. I would be surprised if 75% of HN do not already own one and 90+ be capable of getting and managing one?

Presumably a throw away domain is more costly than a throw away email?

Links that reach front page get a good dollop of google juice, so spammers target HN.

Likewise, anything I've posted on HN that even does well in comments becomes a bit of a spam magnet.

It seems to me that you have a few options to create a new account.

1) Click add comment while viewing a comment thread. 2) Try to up-vote anything from anywhere 3) Click Submit from anywhere