YHK - yet another hacker news clone

America.gov – Whatever you need from government, start here

67 points plesiv 2 hours ago 61 comments

valleyer 46 minutes ago | parent

Your NIH is showing: usa.gov already existed

donohoe 44 minutes ago | parent

USA.gov = 800KB

america.gov = 25MB (before you start scrolling)

Feels janky too.

studmuffin650 42 minutes ago | parent

The photos didn't even load for me.

devy 20 minutes ago | parent

Yep, not only that America.gov FAILED the web accessibility test:

America.gov has 1 ERROR and FAILED TO LOAD - this is violating Federal laws. Class action suits anyone?

https://wave.webaim.org/report#/america.gov

Meanwhile the old USA.gov works and loading and no errors (some warnings are expected)

https://wave.webaim.org/report#/usa.gov

locknitpicker 10 minutes ago | parent

> america.gov = 25MB (before you start scrolling)

Yuge.

So notable, they are considering renaming JavaScript to AmericaScript.

Cider9986 45 minutes ago | parent

The Whitehouse learned about vibecoding. See this and arcade.gov.

Also, what?? https://america.gov/privacy

At least realfood.gov was decent [1].

Shouldn't the government websites work on very slow internet connections?

Where's the source code for these websites? First of all, if they are vibe coded by government employees they have to be open source, and secondly, if they are vibe coded (even by a contractor), then they can't be copyrighted.

[1] https://fedtechmagazine.com/article/2026/04/national-design-...

Edit: it says this one is made by the National design studio at the bottom.

wmiel 34 minutes ago | parent

arcade.gov has "Border Patrol along the Rio Grande" game, wtf's wrong with you America these days?

It seems like a pretty crappy idea for a game funded with public money. It's a bad joke about a real, nuanced problem where people are actually losing their lives. What will be next? 'Hit that Iranian school' the game?

1attice 24 minutes ago | parent

Yes, probably. Americans love this stuff

blooalien 21 minutes ago | parent

> Americans love this stuff

Only a certain subset of us that happen to be fond of repeatedly shooting ourselves in the foot and acting like spoiled children in adult bodies with no actual adults in the room. The rest of us are genuinely horrified that our country is now run by mentally challenged psychotic lunatics.

epiccoleman 18 minutes ago | parent

we've totally earned this, so i'm not offended by what you've said. but i'll just step in here to say i fucking hate this stuff.

you could easily argue that there are plenty of things our government has done that matter much more in the grand scheme of things, but the rampant twitter / x meme posts and absolute horseshit like this "arcade" site disgust me. it's not funny or cute, it's despicable.

blooalien 6 minutes ago | parent

> it's not funny or cute, it's despicable.

What's worse is that they're proud of being "despicable". (I can think of a few choice words that describe them better, but "despicable" will do fine for now.) The sorts of behaviors that are normalized these days were reason for absolute shame just a few short decades ago, but apparently it's a badge of honor to be an absolute scumbag these days. Can we stop the handbasket ride to Hell now? I wanna get off.

daveguy 22 minutes ago | parent

Our government is an embarrassment and a disgrace right now. Anyone who wasn't guzzling elon's twitter or fox's hatefest knew it was going to be this way. We need severe regulations on oligarchs and their propaganda toys. Used to be we had enforced anti-monopoly controls on media outlet conglomerates. The anti-government Goldwater/Reagan legacy worked for decades to destroy regulation. It needs to return with a vengeance.

godwinson__4-8 13 minutes ago | parent

The White House is basically run by right-wing internet trolls.

Truly a depressing time in the United States. There are few parallels in history I think were such an immature and ill-equipped government has come to be, where the concept of an electorate also existed. Put differently - the reason this is so damning is Americans actually voted for this. This isn't some tinpot dictator - this is the guy your neighbors and fellow citizens put in charge. An indictment not only of the political class - but of the American people writ large.

rafram 10 minutes ago | parent

They laid off the highly skilled professionals who voluntarily took pay cuts (vs industry) to work for the US Digital Service (now "US DOGE Service," God help us) and GSA 18F, and who built some pretty solid standards for government sites.

They then replaced them with a bunch of inexperienced but ideologically aligned frontend developers who use the same insanely resource-intensive defense tech startup-esque template on every page, and who seem to be under the impression that scroll hijacking and fade-in blur effects are very essential to a government website, but performance on low-end devices and compatibility with accessibility technologies are not.

Feels like a step backwards to me, but perhaps the 4D chess game they're playing is just way above my level.

unreal6 43 minutes ago | parent

Love that the "chat" functionality is just throwing 429s too. Unusable.

comice 41 minutes ago | parent

"I don’t determine whether a country is committing war crimes, and I don’t list alleged crimes against Israel or any other government. That would be legal and political commentary, which I don’t provide."

tjwebbnorfolk 40 minutes ago | parent

> "America.gov keeps your data private."

I initially read this as "keeps your private data".

micromacrofoot 39 minutes ago | parent

> and keeps your privacy protected

yeah right, the agency behind this still features ed "big balls" coristine on their website

peddling-brink 24 minutes ago | parent

Protected from bears. It's very safe from bears. As to any other unauthorized access.. No logging, no unauthorized access. Very simple.

1attice 20 minutes ago | parent

[flagged]

dang 9 minutes ago | parent

Could you please stop posting unsubstantive comments and flamebait? You've unfortunately been doing it repeatedly. It's not what this site is for, and destroys what it is for.

If you wouldn't mind reviewing https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html and taking the intended spirit of the site more to heart, we'd be grateful.

thln666 36 minutes ago | parent

I need my government to be run by some functioning adults, is that on this website?

copperx 26 minutes ago | parent

Your request has been logged and forwarded to the appropriate agencies. We'll come to you.

DonHopkins 21 minutes ago | parent

I filled out a form and pressed the SUBMIT button, but it made ME submit.

boterock 21 minutes ago | parent

And along those lines, I'd like to ask USA government to stop messing with other countries politics.

superjan 7 minutes ago | parent

[delayed]

neutrinobro 33 minutes ago | parent

I need to be left alone.

mellosouls 28 minutes ago | parent

I haven't tried this but in principle I think this sort of finding a needle in a haystack situation (finding the correct path to assistance in a government service) is one of the rare circumstances where a well-crafted chatbot can be genuinely useful rather than just irritating.

scun 17 minutes ago | parent

or a well-crafted static website

nfw2 16 minutes ago | parent

no, static documents are not an ideal way to find a needle in a haystack

graemep 13 minutes ago | parent

They can be with decent search and if well organised. gov.uk works pretty well as it is and I suspect adding a chatbot would make it worse.

Xirdus 13 minutes ago | parent

Having used various "ask AI" features in various work tools over the last half a year for looking up project designs, documentation, chat logs, meeting notes etc., I can tell you even a half assed AI chatbot is a huge improvement over the pre-AI state of things for this use case.

dreadsword 9 minutes ago | parent

I've tried it - I've been playing around with a vibe coded application that crawls municipal websites, indexes and embeds, and then does rag retrieval. It came from the need to dig up specific information that's scattered across PDFs, multiple web pages, etc. - exactly as you described. AI does a decent job (w/ RAG) of synthesizing.

https://opencity.services/chat/winnipeg

how do i report a noise complaint?

It depends on the type of noise:

- Loud party or people-related noise: call the Winnipeg Police Service non-emergency line at 204-986-6222.

- Animals making unreasonably loud, unnecessary or excessive noises: report it through 3-1-1.

- Mechanical equipment noise like furnaces or air conditioners, or noise from construction tools used by a company or resident: contact Community By-law Enforcement Services at 3-1-1.

- Planned event noise: you may need a Noise Permit at no cost, but it is not for construction work and should be submitted at least four weeks before the event.

The City also says noise-generating activities within 150 metres of a residential property are generally prohibited before 7 a.m. and after 9 p.m. on weekdays, and before 9 a.m. and after 9 p.m. on Saturdays, Sundays and statutory holidays.

------

YMMV. A big part of the backend is categorizing hits and misses, with an eye to helping municipalities clean up conflicting information, fill obvious gaps, etc.

riskable 26 minutes ago | parent

I tried to get it to generate code but it says that's forbidden by its system prompt. However, it was happy to recommend Python modules for accessing api.data.gov.

SparkyDogs 21 minutes ago | parent

the guardrails on it seem pretty strong as I've tried a variety of prompt injections but have been unsuccessful.

blooalien 15 minutes ago | parent

> ... as I've tried a variety of prompt injections ...

Well... You're a terrorist now. You can expect a visit from the FBI and/or ICE any minute now.

SparkyDogs 14 minutes ago | parent

my tax dollars are paying for these tokens so I should be allowed to use them as I see fit

Shank 24 minutes ago | parent

I like the voice button that isn't actually a button, but just an icon.

maherbeg 24 minutes ago | parent

OK, there's a lot of negative comments here, but this is a great idea at a high level. It really is hard to figure out where to do a thing and it's also very easy to get phished. If they can figure out how to help people get all the services they're eligible for that'll be an amazing improvement for the people.

zarmin 22 minutes ago | parent

>Designed & Engineered in D.C. by National Design Studio

Terrible job, guys.

baggy_trough 22 minutes ago | parent

I need it to stop stealing so much of my money and leave me alone.

steele 21 minutes ago | parent

Slopped together by the newest digital-first branch of the Department of War: US Super Convolutional Agentic Military

Geeek 21 minutes ago | parent

They just stole the IOS TouchID icon?

hangonhn 19 minutes ago | parent

And used it to partially obscure part of a sentence. Does it do anything? I click it and a check mark appears. But then what?

seemaze 9 minutes ago | parent

you should not have pushed that button..

functionmouse 16 minutes ago | parent

it has AI in the name so it's not stealing.

Geeek 9 minutes ago | parent

Sir, you have been summonsed for using the incorrect term. It is now called Super Intelligence, not Artificial Intelligence.

crisnoble 21 minutes ago | parent

"chat is unavailable right now"

dmschulman 21 minutes ago | parent

At least it can answer "who won the 2020 presidential election" honestly

devin 17 minutes ago | parent

If true, there is no doubt a patch incoming.

rbbydotdev 20 minutes ago | parent

How this administration uses its communications online via websites and social media, spreading propaganda, cynical remarks, and just down right rude, racist and bigoted 4chan-tier trolling - will go down in history as absolutely disgusting and abhorrent. If the internet never forgets future generations will certainly look back and question how this was ever allowed or made possible.

wax66 20 minutes ago | parent

Interesting. I put in the phrase, "I'm a dissident who is looking to overthrow the government..."

Let's see how long until I get some new frenz!

outside1234 19 minutes ago | parent

I clicked "Lower deficit spending" but it didn't work

surprisetalk 18 minutes ago | parent

Tangentially related

I think it’s a mistake to equate the United States with “America”. I prefer calling Americans “Yankees” or “Usonians”.

[0] https://taylor.town/yankee

pdevr 16 minutes ago | parent

Regardless of any other disagreements, this is an excellent idea. Hoping the execution does not wander asunder.

cvhc 7 minutes ago | parent

I asked about my visa administrative processing that has been stuck for 6 months. I'm going to use this response, which is well grounded and "official", in my writ of mandamus petition:

> A Spanish State Department page still says most cases finish within 60 days of the interview, but that is not a deadline and some take much longer. [1] https://travel.state.gov/content/travel/en/us-visas/inmigrac...

Good.