The best online guides, according to hackers
5 online guides were recommended on Hacker News between November 2025 and November 2026. We rank them by how many separate people recommend each one, and 1 earns the Hacker Approved badge.
Top pick
The most recommended online guide with the badge. Each figure is 2 people. RecommendsCriticizes One comment
Covers many common LLM writing patterns
A free Wikipedia guide to common patterns in LLM-written text, praised for going well beyond the em-dash rule. Some say it is fallible in the long run.
All 5 online guides, ranked
Select a column heading to sort. Approval share is recommenders out of everyone who gave an opinion; the tick on each bar marks the 2 to 1 line the badge needs. Months counts the months, out of 13, in which someone recommended it.
| Rank | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Wikipedia: Signs of AI writing | 34 | 0 | 100% | 10 | — | Approved |
| 2 | Mahjong: A Visual Guide | 9 | 0 | 100% | 1 | — | — |
| 3 | Unsloth guides | 8 | 0 | 100% | 7 | — | — |
| 4 | Making Software | 6 | 0 | 100% | 6 | — | — |
| 5 | The Agentic AI Handbook: Production-Ready Patterns | 4 | 8 | 33% | 1 | — | — |
How we rank
Rank is the number of separate people who recommend a product in a Hacker News comment over the past year. Someone who praises the same online guide in five threads counts once.
The badge goes to online guides that at least 10 people recommend, with recommenders outnumbering critics at least 2 to 1, recommended in at least 4 of the 13 months.
Rankings are never for sale. We may earn a commission when you buy through our links. It never changes the order.