Continuing the tangent... I wonder why HN isn't open source?

It used to be, maybe it still is https://github.com/wting/hackernews (7 years ago)

Iirc they didn't want to publish details of the ranking algorithm at some point, to prevent "hacking" of submissions.

Maybe they stopped publishing the code since then.

> pre-wrap: word

they would only need to add this to the CSS, yes? then you get the same four-spaces code block, but it doesn't cause horizontal scrollbars any more.

HN admins, could you please add this?

Please don't: when used for code, preserving lines (even when requiring scrolling on mobile) is a good thing. 100% width is fine, no reason it needs to be as narrow as it is.

If a blockquote format is desired, that's great, but don't change the code formatting to make it a slightly-less bad (but still horrible, because of monospacing) way of presenting blockquotes.

How about a few profile fields where users can customize some aspects of the HN CSS that is used just for them when they are logged in.

You know, like how there is "topcolor" already; just a bit more of the same.

Yes.

And on copy/paste, the linebreaks in the original are preserved, which obviates the code objection answering you below.

lobste.rs is infinitely more advanced than HN, interface-wise (and it's also perfectly lightweight, so that's no excuse for HN to hide under)

Legacy and data conversion may well be issues.

Front end is not back end, etc.

Archive, transfer user database, and deprecate is common for web forums if an upgrade is needed.

anyone have an invite code handy?