A userscript that adds archive URLs below the paywalled HN submissions
This userscript adds archive URLs to the metadata section of HN submissions without breaking the immersion. Here are 2 screenshots: https://imgur.com/a/PdUu6oG GreasyFork: https://greasyfork.org/en/scripts/452024-hacker-news-anti-pa... Source code: https://github.com/MostlyEmre/hn-anti-paywall Now let me overexplain. -Why?- I never liked paywalled articles. I understand where they come from, but I don't like where we cross our paths. This is why I don't use major news aggregators anymore. Instead, I spend my…
In plain words
This userscript for Hacker News automatically adds archive URLs below paywalled article submissions, displaying them in the metadata section without disrupting the page layout. It is for Hacker News users who encounter paywalled content and want quick access to archived versions. The tool addresses the common problem of paywall-blocked articles by providing alternative links directly within the submission interface.
written from the facts on this page · September 2026
From the sources
In the maker’s words, at launch
This userscript adds archive URLs to the metadata section of HN submissions without breaking the immersion. Here are 2 screenshots: https://imgur.com/a/PdUu6oG GreasyFork: https://greasyfork.org/en/scripts/452024-hacker-news-anti-pa... Source code: https://github.com/MostlyEmre/hn-anti-paywall Now let me overexplain. -Why?- I never liked paywalled articles. I understand where they come from, but I don't like where we cross our paths. This is why I don't use major news aggregators anymore. Instead, I spend my "catching-up-with-the-world-time" on Hacker News. However, Hacker News (HN) also has its fair-share of paywalled articles. (Around 11.6% according to my short-lived, half-assed attempt at measuring it. See my super old data https://hpa.emre.ca/ I tell the story below.) -First try- Around a year ago, when I ran the above experiment, my goal wasn't to run that experiment. It was during my self-teaching & career-changing process, I decided to build a React HN clone. To make it stand-out from the bunch, I added a paywall feature. It would detect paywalled articles and would add an archive URL into the metadata. The issue with archiving is unless someone archived the link before on the {archiving-project} then the link is most likely not archived. So me sending people to those projects meant nothing. It kinda meant something for me from an ideological standpoint but I assume you are not me. This rubbed me the wrong way. I decided to build a backend (See https://github.com/MostlyEmre/HN-Paywall-Archiver) that would scan the links and automatically to detect paywalls close to real-time and submit paywalled ones to archive.is for archival. I used Nodejs, Firebase, and React. I was -still am- really proud because I believed it was doing public good in terms of digital preservation. Only 1 person needed to run this script to benefit everyone. As an extra, I was curious on how many paywalled articles were being shared, by whom, at what time. So I also created some analytics functionality to gather the data. And later created a UI to present it. HN-Paywall-Archiver was great but I stopped running the backend at some point. Because at that point couldn't find a way to continuously run my backend code on some platform for cheap or didn't try hard enough. P.S. Recently I've been thinking of remaking this version with Cloudflare Workers. -Hacker News Paywall Archiver Userscript- After almost a year, I got into userscripts. Super great super awesome concept. People seem to hate javascript unless it is presented as a userscript. So I decided to get my hands dirty to create a simple solution that solves the paywall issue on HN without breaking any hearts. My solution is not perfect as it had to be simple. But here's the rundown. Pros: - Does not beg for attention. - Simple code, simple concept. - Unintentionally, indicates which submissions are paywalled without you interacting with anything. - Not-yet-archived archive links can make you feel like you are contributing to the society after you click on the "archive this URL" button on project page. - Uses HN html defaults, so I hope it plays well with the HN skins/plugins/userscripts you use. Cons: - It doesn't automatically archive the links. - It uses clone of a static list of paywalled websites sourced from a popular Chrome extension. (https://github.com/iamadamdev/bypass-paywalls-chrome/blob/ma...) So changing the paywall list is slow and manual. - No guarantees of archived links actually having the archive readily available for reading. Though there are currently 3 projects added, so it should be enough for most links. So, there you go. I hope you enjoy it. It can break occasionally due to changes in news.ycombinator code, if you let me know on Twitter, I can fix it ASAP. Otherwise you have to wait until I notice that the script is broken, which…
Does the same job
all alternatives →- IWI was tired of opening 2 tabs for every HN link, so I made a userscriptJul 2026 · github.com · ▲433
HN is great for the links people share, but a big part of the value I get comes from reading the discussion around them. I realized I was always opening the article in one tab and the comments in another, constantly switching back and forth. I figured there was probably a simpler way, so I threw together this userscript to merge the two. 1. Clicking a link from Hacker News opens the article with a side panel containing the discussion. It doesn't require your credentials, is resizable, and is easy to tweak if you want to customize it. 2. If you land on an article that has previously been…
- MHMarkdown HN profiles at {user}.at.hn2024 · at.hn · ▲459
Very opportunistic toy project as I saw the domain was up for grabs: 'at.hn' is a little site where people can have their own subdomains for whatever their HN username is (opt-in only by adding a slug to your bio). It doesn't really do much. Just shows your HN bio rendered as markdown plus meta stuff. I'm thinking of adding an aggregated user listing on the homepage so people can explore profiles. There's a bunch of interesting people on HN but discoverability is a bit longwinded. I'm wondering what other features people want. Otherwise shall likely leave it as-is. I remember hnbadges was a…
- HAHNRelevant – Add a "related" section to Hacker News2025 · github.com · ▲122
It's been 2 years since the initial release [here](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=36102610). The initial version was a very basic prototype which was not available anywhere beyond the GitHub repo. You had to install it as a userscript or load the extension manually. Since then, it remained simple but better, new features include: - Improved accuracy by also using comments to help gauge the topic of discussion and the right keywords. - Published as plugin for more browsers: Chrome, Firefox (including android), and more recently Microsoft Edge. - Support for narrow screens…
- HHHacker Herald – like HN but with crowdsourced pics and subtitles2024 · hackerherald.com · ▲251
Hi folks this is a project I worked on with some of my students when I was running an online JS programming course. Although the online course is no more, I finally got around to releasing Hacker Herald with a former instructor and student - thanks Arnav and Archis! To those wondering if there is a need for such a Hacker News front end, I would just point out that most newspaper websites are laid out like this - clearly some people like this kind of layout! Also for some stories a picture really does help - currently there is a HN story titled, "Portland airport grows with expansive mass…
- HBHackerNews but for research papers2024 · papertalk.xyz · ▲319
Hey guys, I love HN! I wanted to extend the same aesthetic and community towards things beyond tech-related news. I thought it would be cool to get the same quality of community gathered around the latest and greatest research coming out. Let me know what you guys think of what I have so far. It's still early so there are probably bugs and other quality issues. If there's any features missing that you'd want let me know. ALSO, if any of you are familiar with the map of the territory of any particular field, please let me know! Would love to pick your brain and to come up with a 'most…
- IBI built a Hacker News userscript to make this site more legible2022 · github.com · ▲102
My personal itch to scratch just recently has been the umpteen formatting foibles of HackerNews. So, in the spirit of making the web more personal again, I knocked up a TamperMonkey userscript to fix up the worst of my personal bugbears. This isn't an attempt at a complete rebrand/redesign of the site, instead it's just fixing up what I think are the biggest design/readability issues whilst trying to remain true to the site's existing aesthetic. Key features: * Base font size increased * A little more room around headings * Top menu bar is full-width and with a little more padding…
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