# Ars Technica Hacker Approved page: https://hackerapproved.com/p/ars-technica/ 18 people recommended Ars Technica in Hacker News comments, 12 had mixed feelings and 55 criticized it, November 2025 to October 2026. It was recommended in 8 of 12 months, in 13 threads. It does not meet the Hacker Approved badge rule. **Verdict:** Criticized more than recommended, mainly for declining quality and AI-written articles; those who recommend it cite in-depth tech and space reporting and an ad-free subscription. Summary written by Claude from the comments below. ## What people warn about - Quality has declined over years (5 comments in the sample): "Ars has had a depreciating quality the past few years by most accounts." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48291586)) "they basically dropped their journalism levels to reddit quality" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47016516)) "watched it slowly devolve from a place where thoughtful discussions happened to now just being one of the worst echo chambers" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47013924)) - Biased coverage and advertiser influence (4 comments in the sample): "Ars is one of the better tech blogs out there, but it still has instances of biased reporting" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46153275)) "When they started doing car reviews where "GM didn't pay for this car review, they just paid for a car review." everyone should've clued in." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47020778)) "If it isn't clear from this policy that Ars is run by the advertisers and not the subscribers…" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47874977)) - Articles look AI-generated or fabricated (3 comments in the sample): "they should have fired the journalist in question immediately, and come out hard against slop writing" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47882513)) "I'm glad they're declaring outright that they're (as we suspected for a while now) a slop factory." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47877980)) "Default assumption should be that it's all hallucinated unless you've checked it personally." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47020112)) - Poor handling of corrections (3 comments in the sample): "I was disappointed by Ars's response. They deleted the article and didn't detail what was wrong with it at all." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47229152)) "ArsTechica just did the same - removed Nora from older articles. How can you trust ArsTechica after that?" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47095327)) "Not a great look, if Ars either doesn't know, or can't control what they're actually publishing." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47178400)) ## Why people recommend it - In-depth tech and science articles (3 comments in the sample): "to some extent Arstechnica (specially John Siracusa's OS X reviews) are the rare category 2." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47015307)) "I miss the days when they would publish super in-depth articles on computing." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47016199)) "very informative articles over the years about the science of forecasting" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48143841)) - Ad-free subscription option (2 comments in the sample): "Ars is one of the few news sources I consistently read…" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47016775)) "I'm very glad that Ars allows me to subscribe so that I don't have to see the ads" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47869714)) - High standards, better than peers (2 comments in the sample): "I've found that they have more journalistic integrity than most mainstream news pages." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47234023)) "Ars has been operating at an exceptionally high level for their entire history" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47018253)) - Strong space coverage by Eric Berger (2 comments in the sample): "Eric Berger space coverage still remains Ars’ strong suit." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47013665)) "I’ll still read the (mostly space) articles at Ars" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47017251)) ## Other news outlets people recommend - [CNN Lite](https://hackerapproved.com/p/cnn/): 25 recommend, 3 mixed, 48 criticize - [text.npr.org](https://hackerapproved.com/p/text-npr-org/): 23 recommend, 0 mixed, 1 criticize - [The Guardian](https://hackerapproved.com/p/guardian/): 18 recommend, 12 mixed, 42 criticize - [The Verge](https://hackerapproved.com/p/verge/): 11 recommend, 2 mixed, 26 criticize ## The badge A product earns the Hacker Approved badge when at least 10 people recommend it, recommenders outnumber critics at least 2 to 1 (mixed feelings count toward neither side), it was recommended in at least 4 of the 12 months and in at least 5 different threads, and no single thread supplies more than half of the people who recommend it. Health and money products are never badged. ## Cite as Hacker Approved, "Ars Technica", https://hackerapproved.com/p/ars-technica/ (18 recommend, 12 mixed, 55 criticize; Hacker News comments, November 2025 to October 2026). Counts updated 2 Nov 2026, with data through October 31, 2026.