Ask HN: Why does a black line appear on HN sometimes?

4 pointsbheadmaster3 comments

Over the years, I've noticed periods when HN starts showing a black line above the orange top (with the menu New|Past|Comments|...etc). When inspecting it with dev tools, it seems to be a 1x1 pixel gif: https://news.ycombinator.com/s.gif

Does anyone know why does this appear periodically?

Thanks.

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They add this black line when an important figure of tech dies. It is the HN equivalent of a black armband: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_armband

Today, it's Tony Hoare: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47324054

Interesting. Thanks for info.

It signifies that someone notable in the industry has recently died, in this case Tony Hoare [1]

[1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47324054

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