Hacker News Ask HN posts wait significantly longer for first comments in 2026

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A data analysis of Hacker News posts reveals that Ask HN posts took over twice as long to receive their first comment in 2026 compared to Show HN posts. The study examined over 98,000 posts across three seasonal periods in both 2025 and 2026. In 2025, the median time to first comment was statistically similar for both post types, but a significant gap emerged in all three 2026 sampling windows. Show HN posts actually became faster year-over-year, while Ask HN's overall waiting time did not show a clear increasing trend. The change is attributed to speed of engagement, not comment likelihood, as the percentage of posts receiving no comments remained stable.

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