I think you're mixing a bunch of stuff here.

Accessibility is a problem and assuming it is as bad as you say it is it really should be addressed, agreed.

But that's completely orthogonal to being hard to game. And the concerns the OP brings up are unrelated to accessibility and indeed read more about instructions on how to game HN more successfully, otherwise why bring the VCs and the 'levers' into it in the first place?

> It reads like “you probably want to game HN; stop doing so”.

YES.

> HN is completely unusable for people with vision impairments relying on assistive technologies.

For one, this is unrelated to allowing marketers to game the system.

For two, how much are you hyperbolizing there? I only ask because I was having a conversation in comments with a blind HN-er only like 3 days ago.

The small font and not working with Reader view is not ideal for me, but not such an issue as to force me to search for a solution.

Oh, small font. I forgot how small it is by default because the browser saves the zoom level per page.

Indeed, in spite of wearing glasses that correct me 100%, that font is way too small.

I use the default font size on iPhone and iPad. And just bump the zoom up to 133% and 150% on desktop.

Yes, and it's been so long since I had to adjust it that I forgot I'm not browsing at the default size.

As a screen reader user who has an account since 2018 and >10k karma, I beg to disagree.

Could it be better? For sure. Is it in the bottom 10% of sites I've ever seen? Definitely not.

Please stop trying to use a group you're not a part of for your own political purposes, especially if you don't know what you're talking about.

While there is a lack of semantic HTML, "completely unusable" is an inappropriate exaggregation. At least I am pretty happy that HN is one of the last places on the internet that still work pretty well with a text browser like Lynx. I wonder, do you rely on accessibility, or are you just parroting things you read elsewhere?

Fighting spam is a benefit for everyone and it’s most definitely done on purpose behind closed doors.

Yes accessibility would be nice, I agree, but if I’m understaffed, provide free as in beer service where being on the first page is worth millions in marketing spend and being top 1 for a few hours is worth tens if not hundreds so I’m constantly under attack from everyone and their dog who have anything at all to sell, it’s going to be hard to prioritize other things.

…yeah I agree they should hire an intern or something to just fix this on slow burn.

HN is backed by very, very wealthy people, they could easily afford to fix this going on the assumption that it is as big a problem as the GP says, which I would rather ask the community than make any statements on.

I'm simply reminded of Tim Cook in 2014:

> Mr. Cook replied --with an uncharacteristic display of emotion--that a return on investment (ROI) was not the primary consideration on such issues. "When we work on making our devices accessible by the blind," he said, "I don't consider the bloody ROI." It was the same thing for environmental issues, worker safety, and other areas that don’t have an immediate profit. The company does "a lot of things for reasons besides profit motive. We want to leave the world better than we found it."

> Reportedly looking directly at the NCPPR representative, he said, "If you want me to do things only for ROI reasons, you should get out of this stock."

https://www.forbes.com/sites/stevedenning/2014/03/07/why-tim...