Hacker Smacker
Shares rank 25 of 70 browser extensions by recommenders
Highlights chosen Hacker News commenters and marks others so you can scan threads faster and skip or filter their comments. Critics say it encourages glossing over diverging viewpoints.
Highlights chosen Hacker News commenters and marks others so you can scan threads faster and skip or filter their comments. Critics say it encourages glossing over diverging viewpoints.
24 people gave an opinion
- recommend it
- 14
- criticize it
- 10
- approval share
- 58%
Recommended in 6 of 13 months
- November 2025: not recommended
- December 2025: not recommended
- January 2026: not recommended
- February 2026: recommended
- March 2026: recommended
- April 2026: recommended
- May 2026: not recommended
- June 2026: recommended
- July 2026: recommended
- August 2026: not recommended
- September 2026: not recommended
- October 2026: recommended
- November 2026: not recommended (month in progress)
Why it doesn’t carry the badge
- 14 people recommend itNeeds 10 or more, met.
- 1.4 recommenders for every criticNeeds 2 to 1 or better, not met.
- Recommended in 6 of 13 monthsNeeds 4 or more, met.
The same three rules apply to every product, and the badge can’t be bought. How the badge works
What people say about it
The reasons people give, with the number of comments that give each one. Open a reason to read what they said.
Why people recommend it
Each mark is one comment
Makes threads faster to scan
“I've really enjoyed having those writers that I like highlighted on this comment thread because it makes it very easy to scan it.”
Comment from 27 Feb 2026 in “Show HN: Hacker Smacker – spot great (and terrible) HN commenters at a glance” “This is a time saving browser extension, freeing me up to scan more HN threads.”
Comment from 27 Feb 2026 in “Show HN: Hacker Smacker – spot great (and terrible) HN commenters at a glance” “It allows me to not waste effort.”
Comment from 29 Jun 2026 in “Mullvad founder gave millions to extremist far right party” Marks commenters to skip or filter
“so that I can mark bots to avoid their content and mark good posters so I can filter just to theirs”
Comment from 14 Mar 2026 on Hacker News “I use https://hackersmacker.org to mark them with a red dot so I can skip those comments.”
Comment from 6 Apr 2026 in “Artemis II crew see first glimpse of far side of Moon” Shows context on repeat commenters
“I searched a few comments I agreed using the "Ask HN: What are some iconic comments on HN?" thread”
Comment from 27 Feb 2026 in “Show HN: Hacker Smacker – spot great (and terrible) HN commenters at a glance” “when I see them comment elsewhere I now have the context for why I feel the way I do about them”
Comment from 27 Feb 2026 in “Show HN: Hacker Smacker – spot great (and terrible) HN commenters at a glance”
What people warn about
Each mark is one comment
Encourages glossing over opposing views
“The extension encourages glossing over diverging viewpoints, setting yourself up to dismiss quickly.”
Comment from 27 Feb 2026 in “Show HN: Hacker Smacker – spot great (and terrible) HN commenters at a glance” “So you're encouraging people to be in a rush and make more superficial choices”
Comment from 27 Feb 2026 in “Show HN: Hacker Smacker – spot great (and terrible) HN commenters at a glance” “So that you can not avoid the ones you don't like, huh.”
Comment from 27 Feb 2026 in “Show HN: Hacker Smacker – spot great (and terrible) HN commenters at a glance” - Comment from 1 Mar 2026 in “Show HN: Hacker Smacker – spot great (and terrible) HN commenters at a glance”
Privacy concerns about commenter tracking
“This is cool, but for folks concerned about privacy, even if the cached layer is anonymized”
Comment from 27 Feb 2026 in “Show HN: Hacker Smacker – spot great (and terrible) HN commenters at a glance” “I've found a couple HN users who have that have apparently been using it to follow and target me with comments whenever I post.”
Comment from 3 Apr 2026 in “The open web isn't dying. We're killing it” Poor contrast and distracting layout
“Neat project, but please increase the contrast between the text and the background”
Comment from 27 Feb 2026 in “Show HN: Hacker Smacker – spot great (and terrible) HN commenters at a glance” “the layout shift when all the icons load in is very distracting”
Comment from 27 Feb 2026 in “Show HN: Hacker Smacker – spot great (and terrible) HN commenters at a glance” Seen as low quality or slop
“maybe this is not very high quality information in the first place”
Comment from 27 Feb 2026 in “Show HN: Hacker Smacker – spot great (and terrible) HN commenters at a glance” “Another step towards the Redditification of hackernews.”
Comment from 26 Feb 2026 in “Show HN: Hacker Smacker – spot great (and terrible) HN commenters at a glance” “personally this seems like a slop project either way”
Comment from 27 Feb 2026 in “Show HN: Hacker Smacker – spot great (and terrible) HN commenters at a glance”
Other browser extensions people recommend
The four most recommended other browser extensions, with the same counts for each, so you can compare like for like. The tick on each bar marks the 2 to 1 line the badge needs.
| Product | Recommend | Criticize | Approval | Months | Owned | Badge |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| SponsorBlock | 137 | 4 | 97% | 13 | — | Approved |
| Firefox Multi-Account Containers | 76 | 13 | 85% | 10 | 7.5 yrs3 owners | Approved |
| NoScript | 61 | 11 | 85% | 12 | 10 yrs4 owners | Approved |
| Claude in Chrome | 53 | 42 | 56% | 9 | — | — |
| Hacker SmackerThis page | 14 | 10 | 58% | 6 | — | — |
What people said
30 of the 35 comments that mention it, newest first. Each links to the original comment.
“Hacker Smacker in particular would be awesome if more users picked it up”
“It allows me to not waste effort.”
“I use https://hackersmacker.org to mark them with a red dot so I can skip those comments.”
“Highly annoying. Hn should block that thing from linking.”
“I've found a couple HN users who have that have apparently been using it to follow and target me with comments whenever I post.”
“so that I can mark bots to avoid their content and mark good posters so I can filter just to theirs”
“I was literally looking for something like this a couple weeks ago.”
“this seems like the answer to the slop-pocalyspe!”
“I am having a blast with this”
“Elsewhere in this thread HackerSmacker was mentioned, which is what I'm describing. That's exciting, I'll be trying it out later.”
“it will evolve in echo chambers”
“The extension encourages glossing over diverging viewpoints, setting yourself up to dismiss quickly.”
“This is cool, but for folks concerned about privacy, even if the cached layer is anonymized”
“I searched a few comments I agreed using the "Ask HN: What are some iconic comments on HN?" thread”
“Thanks for actually providing a Safari extension, this is rare!”
“Neat project, but please increase the contrast between the text and the background”
“This is like the virtual equivalent of scratching your ass and sniffing the finger.”
“This is a time saving browser extension, freeing me up to scan more HN threads.”
“when I see them comment elsewhere I now have the context for why I feel the way I do about them”
“Might as well just have one ambiguous orb, then.”
“So that you can not avoid the ones you don't like, huh.”
“maybe this is not very high quality information in the first place”
“So you're encouraging people to be in a rush and make more superficial choices”
“the layout shift when all the icons load in is very distracting”
“I've really enjoyed having those writers that I like highlighted on this comment thread because it makes it very easy to scan it.”
“personally this seems like a slop project either way”
“I am getting 502 Bad Gateway when following the URL”
“Another step towards the Redditification of hackernews.”
“I don't appear to be able to tap on the bubbles next to people's usernames”
“Is that much of a signal? I dunno. That's 30 seconds of thought about it. It's a fun idea though so I'll try it.”
Counts come from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026. How we count. Report a mistake.