Wired magazine
Shares rank 9 of 15 online magazines by recommenders
Recommended for in-depth reporting and long-form articles, though critics say its paywalls, pop-ups and unwanted renewals are a serious drawback.
Recommended for in-depth reporting and long-form articles, though critics say its paywalls, pop-ups and unwanted renewals are a serious drawback.
33 people gave an opinion
- recommend it
- 11
- criticize it
- 22
- approval share
- 33%
Recommended in 8 of 13 months
- November 2025: recommended
- December 2025: recommended
- January 2026: recommended
- February 2026: recommended
- March 2026: recommended
- April 2026: not recommended
- May 2026: recommended
- June 2026: recommended
- July 2026: not 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
- 11 people recommend itNeeds 10 or more, met.
- 0.5 recommenders for every criticNeeds 2 to 1 or better, not met.
- Recommended in 8 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
In-depth reporting and articles
“Which is fine if I want the relationship, like with Ars Technica, Wired where I'm usually interested in their reporting.”
Comment from 4 Jun 2026 in “The desperation of NYTimes” “A nice article on the underlying systemic causes of the crash”
Comment from 28 Nov 2025 in “Credit report shows Meta keeping $27B off its books through advanced geometry” “Wired write-up on it is a recommended reading”
Comment from 26 Feb 2026 in “Story of XZ Backdoor [video]” - Comment from 13 Feb 2026 in “CBP Signs Clearview AI Deal to Use Face Recognition for 'Tactical Targeting'”
- Comment from 17 Mar 2026 in “Mod sources warn Palantir role at heart of government is threat to UK security”
- Comment from 7 Oct 2026 in “Show HN: gtlds.fyi – All the proposed new gTLDs”
Still seen as good
“The Verge, Engadget, Lifehacker, Wired, and NYT Wirecutter are still good among many many others.”
Comment from 31 Dec 2025 in “Stewart Cheifet, creator of The Computer Chronicles, dead at 87” “Wired is doing pretty well on that front, too”
Comment from 30 Jan 2026 in “Best Gas Masks” “Wired still seems to write some good pieces.”
Comment from 13 Feb 2026 in “CBP Signs Clearview AI Deal to Use Face Recognition for 'Tactical Targeting'”
What people warn about
Each mark is one comment
Paywalls and pop-up interruptions
“And that's not even getting into Verge and Wired's paywalls or syndication over to outrage-farm 404 media”
Comment from 3 Mar 2026 in “The Internet's Top Tech Publications Lost 58% of Their Google Traffic Since 2024” “if you're going to post an article, don't make people pay someone to read it”
Comment from 5 Aug 2026 in “Civilian plane crash in New Mexico tied to military GPS blocking” “the paywall claimed I had used all of my free articles”
Comment from 9 Jul 2026 in “Buried Apple Feature Turns an iPhone into the Perfect Kids' Dumb Phone” - Comment from 6 Aug 2026 on Hacker News
- Comment from 27 Sep 2026 in “Thieves Stole 'Nvidia' Trailers. They Got 20 Tons of Sand”
- Comment from 16 Dec 2025 in “Ford kills the All-Electric F-150”
Unwanted charges and hard cancellations
“tried for a second year in a row to charge me for Wired, which i do not subscribe to”
Comment from 18 May 2026 in “Shutterstock to pay $35M over hard-to-cancel subscriptions” “took me hours to cancel some autorenewing subscription i never subscribed for”
Comment from 4 Jun 2026 in “The desperation of NYTimes” “sent my dad to collections for an automatic renewal that wasn't even due yet”
Comment from 4 Jun 2026 in “The desperation of NYTimes” Hyperbolic, outrage-driven coverage
“Everything has to be presented in such a breathless, hyperbolic, drawn out way.”
Comment from 11 Aug 2026 in “AI Is Dead. Organoids Are Alive” “pure outrage reporting with like 80% political focus”
Comment from 14 Feb 2026 in “I spent two days gigging at RentAHuman and didn't make a single cent” “Wired (Conde Nast) is peak psyop.”
Comment from 17 Apr 2026 in “Everything we like is a psyop” Quality seen as declining since 2017
“has clearly deteriorated in reporting quality and focus since 2017 or so”
Comment from 24 Apr 2026 in “Palantir Employees Are Starting to Wonder If They're the Bad Guys” “there used to be a time when wired magazine was worth reading”
Comment from 1 Dec 2025 in “Ruby is not a serious programming language” “Years ago Wired use to write with quite a bit more flair.”
Comment from 16 Apr 2026 in “Where the DOGE Operatives Are Now”
Other online magazines people recommend
The four most recommended other online magazines, 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| The Economist | 87 | 75 | 54% | 12 | 10 yrs11 owners | — |
| New York Times subscription | 68 | 190 | 26% | 12 | 10 yrs8 owners | — |
| LWN.net subscription | 53 | 14 | 79% | 11 | 22 yrs4 owners | Approved |
| Quanta Magazine | 36 | 20 | 64% | 11 | — | — |
| Wired magazineThis page | 11 | 22 | 33% | 8 | — | — |
What people said
32 of the 34 comments that mention it, newest first. Each links to the original comment.
“really good summary of the gtld situation”
“Wired is a catastrophe of popups and paywalls.”
“it's more a blogspam ad farm site”
“Everything has to be presented in such a breathless, hyperbolic, drawn out way.”
“accidentally closing the tab and reopening it leads to”
“if you're going to post an article, don't make people pay someone to read it”
“the paywall claimed I had used all of my free articles”
“sent my dad to collections for an automatic renewal that wasn't even due yet”
“took me hours to cancel some autorenewing subscription i never subscribed for”
“Which is fine if I want the relationship, like with Ars Technica, Wired where I'm usually interested in their reporting.”
“it's much easier to read the original article on wiredjp than .com”
“gave you a literal physical headache when you tried to read the paper version”
“tried for a second year in a row to charge me for Wired, which i do not subscribe to”
“has clearly deteriorated in reporting quality and focus since 2017 or so”
“Wired (Conde Nast) is peak psyop.”
“Years ago Wired use to write with quite a bit more flair.”
“it's more of a site where tech warehouses in Shenzhen hawk there latest wares”
“there is a very thorough article in Wired”
“And that's not even getting into Verge and Wired's paywalls or syndication over to outrage-farm 404 media”
“Wired write-up on it is a recommended reading”
“pure outrage reporting with like 80% political focus”
“support would never answer me”
“Wired still seems to write some good pieces.”
“Wired is doing pretty well on that front, too”
“Wired, was planning on dropped anyway”
“Wired was such a great magazine to read as a teen in the 90s.”
“As it is, this is clickbait.”
“The Verge, Engadget, Lifehacker, Wired, and NYT Wirecutter are still good among many many others.”
“You’ve read your last free article.”
“there used to be a time when wired magazine was worth reading”
“A nice article on the underlying systemic causes of the crash”
“I have to wonder about the viability of the site.”
Counts come from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026. How we count. Report a mistake.