
Ask HN: Are Hacker News URLs safe to open? - aegatlin
Are user-submitted links safe to open? How does hacker news (or reddit, etc.) make sure submitted URLs are safe to click on?
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gus_massa
> _Are user-submitted links safe to open?_

No.

Well, most of them are, and when one that is unsafe is detected the mods kill
it, and when the mods don't see it, the users put a comment and flag it (when
it has enough flags, it is killed automatically).

Also, after a few (or even one) problematic submission, the mods may put the
site in the autokill list, and ban the user. So most of the time the bad
submissions are just [dead].

If you see something very bad, you can email the mods hn@ycombinator.com

To flag the stories you need 200 karma. Here you get one! Use the flag button
wisely when it is available to you.

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toomuchtodo
This is an HN FAQ worthy comment!

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DoctorOW
Serious question: Where does this information come from? I'm not saying
they're wrong but it seems there's no formal documentation on many of the HN
rules/policies outside of word of mouth like this.

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toomuchtodo
Observation in the course of forum use. Similar to unwritten social convention
or rules.

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rolph
generally green names are brand new or have some low reputation until later,
things like, but not limited to... bots, shadey IP ranges, obscene account
names etc.

if the url comes from somewhere suspect use common sense thats your best
defense. just like any open chat there are bad actors to recognize and avoid
until you can flag.

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mtmail
No, I sometimes, rarely there's even porn, gambling, shady websites selling
video streams. We flag them when possible but there's nobody doing it 24/7\.
Those would be obvious bad submission, much harder to identify those hiding
behind URL shorteners or logins (e.g. facebook groups).

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coopsmgoops
Are there any links that aren't safe to open from a security point of view not
a content point of view? Browsers are very good these days, are there any
known approaches that a malicious person can put in a web page were merely
opening the url can cause a problem?

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presumably
Yes, absolutely.

[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21992491](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21992491)

