# Paged Out

46 Hacker News commenters recommended Paged Out and 7 criticized it, November 2025 to November 2026. It was recommended in 6 of 13 months. It meets the Hacker Approved badge rule.

**Verdict:** Free, freely licensed zine of technical hacker articles and retro-style art that readers compare to old BYTE and Dr. Dobb's. Critics find some article titles clickbait-like.

## Why people recommend it

- Old-school zine spirit like BYTE (7 comments): "I like this magazine vibe, it reminds me of the good ol' l33t zines from the late '80s and '90s." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47075081)) "it's basically the only modern equivalent to 1980s BYTE or Dr. Dobbs Journal today" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47073304)) "It has a little bit of a "2600 vibe" but with a more modern look and feel." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47075181))
- Striking sci-fi art and wallpapers (5 comments): "I love the wallpapers of Paged Out and always set it as my default wallpaper on MacOS." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47073821)) "It's got quite a nice amalgam of topics, as well as the SciFi art illustrations." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47704102)) "The frontpage illustrations are really cool." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46130151))
- Deeply technical, interesting topics (4 comments): "They regularly have interesting stuff to read, and they have a pretty decent amount of readers." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48231432)) "It's got quite a nice amalgam of topics, as well as the SciFi art illustrations." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47704102)) "deeply technical, scattered topics and depth, all very hacker-curious" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49072457))
- Few AI-generated articles (3 comments): "I love that this issue has more posts that are critical on AI usage" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49120926)) "a breath of fresh air in the world convoluted with AI content" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46130469)) "I love it! I appreciate your AI policy" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47088281))

## What people warn about

- Clickbait-style article titles (2 comments): "Also misleading titles like “Eliminating Serialization Cost using B-trees” where the cost savings are actually for de serialization" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47077264)) "the premise of the articles seem to be click-baity and I find that off putting" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47075718))
- Friction in purchase process (2 comments): "Each of these has far more friction in them than necessary, and hurts their overall goal" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46127917)) "has an incredibly convoluted purchase cycle" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46128668))
- Security and IP blocking doubts (2 comments): "And it blocks IP ranges it doesn't like, so who knows what's in it?" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49081645)) "Too bad they don't take security so seriously themselves." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46127880))

## Alternatives hackers recommend

- [Byte magazine](https://hackerapproved.com/p/byte-magazine.md): 49 recommend
- [The New Yorker](https://hackerapproved.com/p/new-yorker.md): 26 recommend
- [Dr. Dobb's Journal](https://hackerapproved.com/p/dr-dobb-s-journal.md): 14 recommend
- [Delayed Gratification magazine](https://hackerapproved.com/p/delayed-gratification-magazine.md): 11 recommend
- [Tmp.0ut Volume 5](https://hackerapproved.com/p/tmp-0ut-volume-5.md): 9 recommend

## Cite as

Hacker Approved, "Paged Out", https://hackerapproved.com/p/paged-out-issue-sharp-8/ (counts from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026).