HN Special - An addition to Hacker News

This extension refreshes the visual style of Hacker News and adds a few features, like infinite scrolling. Everything is toggleable.

HN Special - Enhance Hacker News Experience

HN Special, a Chrome extension, redefines the Hacker News experience with a new visual style and additional features. Notable features include infinite scrolling, opening links in new tabs, and an intuitive comment folding option. Users can personalize these features through the settings menu, and there's even an option to simply disable the new visual style while keeping the enhanced features. The software's open-source nature allows for contributions on GitHub.

Extension stats

Users: 1,000+
Rating: 4.73
(55)
Version: 1.4.11 (Last updated: 2022-10-05)
Creation date: 2017-12-18
Risk impact: Low risk impact
Risk likelihood:
Manifest version: 2
Permissions:
  • *://news.ycombinator.com/*
Size: 854.02K

Other platforms

Not available on Android
Not available on Firefox
Not available on Edge
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Extension summary

HN Special adds a completely new visual style to Hacker News and a few new features, such as:

  • Infinite scrolling
  • Open links in new tabs
  • More accurate domain names
  • Comment folding
  • Mark as read
  • Sticky header

Even more features are going to come in the future!

You can choose which features you want to enable right from the settings menu. If you want, you can also disable the visual style and keep the rest of the features enabled.

This extension is completely open source. If you wish to add a new feature or make some changes, feel free to contribute to it on GitHub! https://github.com/gabrielecirulli/hn-special

User reviews

These summaries are automatically generated weekly using AI based on recent user reviews. Chrome Web Store does not verify user reviews, so some user reviews may be inaccurate, spammy, or outdated.
Pros
  • Great visual upgrade to Hacker News.
  • Offers a dark theme.
  • Open source extension.
  • Improves user interface and user experience.
  • Considered better than HN Enhancement Suite.
Cons
  • Limited space for editing titles on the submit to HN page.
  • Infinite scrolling feature not working for some users.
  • Upvote/downvote arrows misalignment on comments page.
  • Color scheme can be jarring for some users.
Most mentioned
  • Dark theme
  • Visual upgrade
  • Comparison with HN Enhancement Suite
  • User interface improvement
  • Issue with submit to HN page
User reviews
The reason I use MS Edge to read Hacker News. Wunderbar!
by Ozkan Altuner, 2021-05-29

Hands down the best visual upgrade you can make to HN. It even has a dark theme!
by Dakota Benjamin, 2019-07-09

Really liked it, second time that I'm using it (after a previous un-install). Biggest problem (for me, at least) is the submit to HN page...there is very little space to work with when editing the title of the submission...in that respect, HN Special is far inferior to the Post to HN bookmarklet. If you ever do manage to push an update (no pressure Dan), do let me know (with a reply/etc). Otherwise, functional extension.
by Jeff Kahuthu, 2017-07-31
View all user reviews

Extension safety

Risk impact

HN Special - An addition to Hacker News requires very minimum permissions.

Risk likelihood

HN Special - An addition to Hacker News has earned a fairly good reputation and likely can be trusted.

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Promo images

HN Special - An addition to Hacker News small promo image
Small promo image

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