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This isn't the only time s/he's done it, and it reads as unnecessary ad spam—which is frequently looked down upon here. The same thing was downvoted in another

This isn't the only time s/he's done it, and it reads as unnecessary ad spam—which is frequently looked down upon here. The same thing was downvoted in another thread. And if this user is going to continue doing it, it's going to become very annoying very quickly.

jeff_tyrrill 11y ago
Hacker News would be immensely more valuable and useful to me if a poster such as abhi3 posted such a well-written summary on every story.
- bobwaycott 11y ago
  And that would be fine—as an ad-free TL;DR, as so many other HN members offer on many long articles.
- deleted 11y ago
  [deleted]
- jsmthrowaway 11y ago
  I'm not sure I'd call that summary well-written or particularly valuable, but I also don't think that's the poster's fault. Journalism is fundamentally contextualizing information, and stripping the context back to information is like playing telephone. I say this all the time, and I'll say it again: you and I can both write a passable story relaying a world event, but contextualizing it and adding illustration around the event is what journalism is about. Distilling that back to a summary is the antipattern. Simply start with the information and don't add context, because stripping out that nuance can change the context of the story (and did, in this case, particularly in the "even smaller" summary-of-summary). Even beyond that, the summary is a bit error-prone, but again, not the poster's fault and probably due to English being a second language or rushing it. I'm less concerned about that.
- engi_nerd 11y ago
  I don't want summaries in the discussion. I want actual discussion.
  - Dylan16807 11y ago
    A summary is not very big, and doesn't exclude other posts. If ten people posted summaries, you would have a problem, but let's not worry about something that isn't happening.
throwaway2016a 11y ago
It's not that they posted the summary, it is that they put the link at the end advertising the product. The summary was appreciated.
- bobwaycott 11y ago
  I was not complaining about the summary, of course.
  - dang 11y ago
    I'll complain about the summary. HN threads are supposed to be conversations. Reciting a summary into the public record is a boring addition to conversation in its own right—imagine someone doing this in person—and makes discussion more shallow, since it's no longer grounded in people having read the story. HN readers can, should, and do read articles, find out what's interesting about them for themselves, and bring the insights they've harvested to others. That's how good conversation works. Not only do we not need a quick-fix substitute for that, we need not to have one. (This is not a comment on whether a startup of this kind would have value, just on how HN threads are supposed to work.)
    - bobwaycott 11y ago
      Oh, I definitely agree, dang. I was just trying to clarify that I wouldn't have left such a comment for a summary only. I get that people sometimes unfortunately want to have a Reader's Digest abridged version of an article so they can, I guess, distill key points without investing the time to read. But I spend every day on HN because it's usually not the regular thing that happens. Sure, some might find it valuable. But I commented because I don't want to see that kind of thing posted into every article thread here, and I especially don't want to see it with a promotional link for a startup. I obviously don't have a comment history of complaining about people offering summaries. I'm sure I've done something similar here or there. But I really want to see thoughtful, insightful discussion. That's what's made HN such a great place to spend hours a day for years. I (thought obviously) only commented because this particular thing was done on two articles I hit consecutively, and I really didn't want the OP to think that was a good practice here. I guess next time I'll take the time I should have to provide a less reactionary comment, since I seem to have bothered a number of other readers with the way I spoke.
pygy_ 11y ago
Unlike Reddit, HN welcomes self-promotion when it is on topic.
- bobwaycott 11y ago
  Not always. I've been on HN long enough to see quite a regular rate of complaints against those who self-promote, even when on-topic. I don't think anyone wants to see self-promotional summary comments like this one regularly showing up in what are supposed to be discussion threads, all linking back to an Apply HN post. That's going to drive the quality of discussion down.

jeff_tyrrill 11y ago

Hacker News would be immensely more valuable and useful to me if a poster such as abhi3 posted such a well-written summary on every story.

bobwaycott 11y ago
And that would be fine—as an ad-free TL;DR, as so many other HN members offer on many long articles.
deleted 11y ago
[deleted]
jsmthrowaway 11y ago
I'm not sure I'd call that summary well-written or particularly valuable, but I also don't think that's the poster's fault. Journalism is fundamentally contextualizing information, and stripping the context back to information is like playing telephone. I say this all the time, and I'll say it again: you and I can both write a passable story relaying a world event, but contextualizing it and adding illustration around the event is what journalism is about. Distilling that back to a summary is the antipattern. Simply start with the information and don't add context, because stripping out that nuance can change the context of the story (and did, in this case, particularly in the "even smaller" summary-of-summary). Even beyond that, the summary is a bit error-prone, but again, not the poster's fault and probably due to English being a second language or rushing it. I'm less concerned about that.
engi_nerd 11y ago
I don't want summaries in the discussion. I want actual discussion.
- Dylan16807 11y ago
  A summary is not very big, and doesn't exclude other posts. If ten people posted summaries, you would have a problem, but let's not worry about something that isn't happening.

throwaway2016a 11y ago

It's not that they posted the summary, it is that they put the link at the end advertising the product. The summary was appreciated.

bobwaycott 11y ago
I was not complaining about the summary, of course.
- dang 11y ago
  I'll complain about the summary. HN threads are supposed to be conversations. Reciting a summary into the public record is a boring addition to conversation in its own right—imagine someone doing this in person—and makes discussion more shallow, since it's no longer grounded in people having read the story. HN readers can, should, and do read articles, find out what's interesting about them for themselves, and bring the insights they've harvested to others. That's how good conversation works. Not only do we not need a quick-fix substitute for that, we need not to have one. (This is not a comment on whether a startup of this kind would have value, just on how HN threads are supposed to work.)
  - bobwaycott 11y ago
    Oh, I definitely agree, dang. I was just trying to clarify that I wouldn't have left such a comment for a summary only. I get that people sometimes unfortunately want to have a Reader's Digest abridged version of an article so they can, I guess, distill key points without investing the time to read. But I spend every day on HN because it's usually not the regular thing that happens. Sure, some might find it valuable. But I commented because I don't want to see that kind of thing posted into every article thread here, and I especially don't want to see it with a promotional link for a startup. I obviously don't have a comment history of complaining about people offering summaries. I'm sure I've done something similar here or there. But I really want to see thoughtful, insightful discussion. That's what's made HN such a great place to spend hours a day for years. I (thought obviously) only commented because this particular thing was done on two articles I hit consecutively, and I really didn't want the OP to think that was a good practice here. I guess next time I'll take the time I should have to provide a less reactionary comment, since I seem to have bothered a number of other readers with the way I spoke.

pygy_ 11y ago

Unlike Reddit, HN welcomes self-promotion when it is on topic.

bobwaycott 11y ago
Not always. I've been on HN long enough to see quite a regular rate of complaints against those who self-promote, even when on-topic. I don't think anyone wants to see self-promotional summary comments like this one regularly showing up in what are supposed to be discussion threads, all linking back to an Apply HN post. That's going to drive the quality of discussion down.