I wish HN had a API which could write - the hnsearch one was only read-only when I used it. I tried writing a tool for HN (https://github.com/pbiggar/hackerite) that needed to be able to upvote stories, and although hacks existed to make it work, it wasn't a very pleasant experience.

The original intent of this app was not HN. It was smaller datasets like govt, public service and transit sites which generally don't have any APIs.

And you can avoid HNSearch API limits with: https://gist.github.com/1360455