[Enquiry]

People aged 1-20: How did you find HN? HN isn't easily found on search engines (except for the exact keywords "hacker" and "news"). I can't imagine how a 15 year old is stumbling upon Hacker News, other than a mentor or parent referring them.

[dysoco]

I'm 15. Probably discovered it because of /r/programming in Reddit, can't remember exactly.

I came for the technical discussion, not for the startup scene.

[uiri]

Well, it is fairly easy to stumble across Eric S Raymond's How To Be A Hacker if one has any interest in writing software (or just FOSS in general). At the end of that piece, he links to a couple of Paul Graham's essays, which in turn link to his other essays. HN is the topic of at least a couple of PG's essays so it would surprise me if sooner or later someone reading said essays didn't visit HN at least once.

[dkulchenko]

I was 15 when I stumbled on HN (turning 18 today). Learned about it through YC and its startups (Heroku in particular).

Google "startups" and you tend to end up on a YC page pretty fast, and on HN soon after.

[eksith]

Happy Birthday!

I came across HN while searching for code examples for forums (strangely enough). This was when Digg was still relevant, but someone suggested looking to alternatives for link sharing and HN came up in the conversation.

I lurked around for a long time and then finally joined.

[ntumlin]

There was a link to here on /r/programming. What really got me hooked wasn't all of the articles about startups, etc., but an interesting Wikipedia article. I forget what it was, but it was in the same vein as "White Coke" on the front page now. In the comments of posts like that it's evident that some people think they don't belong on HN, but to me they are reminders that there is really cool and interesting stuff out there that I have no idea even exists. At least getting rid of them would keep the kids out, or it would have me.

[Everlag]

<18 right now. I found HN through a blog that I started following for whatever reason. Terminally incoherent if you want to take a look. One day he mentioned HN on the blog and I found this and instantly was impressed with the mix of articles.

I like HN and check it regularly. It has a much higher standard than reddit and thus supports more interesting discussion. Yes, I do often read the bloody comments before reading the story. Sometimes only the comments because they can be more interesting than the story could possibly.

[mvarner]

Stumbled upon HN when I was around 14-15 (took me a while to work up the nerve to make an account)! Had been fairly familiar with ESR's Hacker Manifesto at that point (probably found that at around age 11?), and I think I was searching for something related to that? I've been reading it fairly consistently since. Was and still am a fan of the interesting random links, though I've been enjoying the technical ones a bit more in my "old" age.

[abritishguy]

I'm 18 but I can't really answer that, I stumbled across it a while back and now it is my 6th most visited site. I think an article on a site was using hacker news for discussion rather than having a comments thread below it, although I can't remember if this was my first exposure or not.

[tommaxwell]

17 here. I was introduced to startups when I was 14 or 15 through Diggnation. I guess that lead to finding HN.

[cenhyperion]

15 here. Working as a developer (along with several more experienced, more talented, and smarter developers who are teaching me more than I've ever learned in school). Been hacking for about a year and half. When all your coworkers browse hacker news you notice.

[alexvr]

I stumbled upon Feross Aboukhadijeh, and I think he mentioned HN on Twitter or something. It was in a negative context, as in, "Stop constantly checking Hacker News and actually do stuff," and I now understand why. Glad I found it, though!

[paramsingh]

I got linked here through reddit.

[nawitus]

Hmm, it's linked to and talked about in a large number of technical blogs and social media. If a young person is interested in programming these days, he or she has probably heard about Hacker News.

[josephpmay]

I read an article about Y Combinator when I was around 10 years old and have been following it ever since. I started actively reading Hacker News at 15 or 16. (Made an account when I was 16).

[djent]

I'm 17. I found HN last year when I searched "Hacker" in the iOS App Store, or some similar query. Found an app, which I no longer use, and started frequenting the site.

[9nimo4]

18. Found it through Twitter (if I remember correctly) about a year or year-and-half ago. It's hard not to end up on HN when one reads pretty much everything tech and startup.

[andyhmltn]

I started developing about age 12-13ish so by the time I was 16 I was pretty ingrained into the whole community and naturally HN fits into that demographic perfectly.

[xtc]

19 here. I began reading a few of pg's most popular essays when I was 17 then found out about Y Combinator and just dug around a little. Now I'm here.

[devonbarrett]

<20 here: I first found HN when I was about 15 through a link posted in an IRC channel I was in.