4 ms·

Can we change the headline to something less clickbaity? "Kerbal Space Program: There's no easy way to say this" etc...

jewbacca 10y ago
Good news! A moderator edited the title to drop the "Kerbal Space Program:" Now it's _just_ "There's no easy way to say this" Request granted, eh?
- jcrites 10y ago
  Dang and other HN staff have said before that they like making readers have to work a bit for the information, and not just be spoonfed in the headlines. I understand it to be about fostering curiosity and wonder. I assume it's also about discouraging people from dismissing an article based on headline alone. ("Kerbal Space Program? I don't know what that is and don't care about it"). Really great HN articles are often an unexpected discovery on a topic I didn't expect to be as interesting as it was. Dan could probably explain better than I. I don't have any information about whether this title was changed or why, but the current title strikes me as lining up with that approach. See also "I'm choosing euthanasia etd 1pm. I have no last words."
  - boomlinde 10y ago
    > I understand it to be about fostering curiosity and wonder. I assume it's also about discouraging people from dismissing an article based on headline alone. Quite an euphemistic way to say "clickbait", isn't it?
  - imron 10y ago
    The problem in this case is the link went to reddit.com. I first thought this was some announcement reddit was making. I don't mind working for the information, but I don't like misleading information.
    - dang 10y ago
      That's a fair point. But links from reddit.com appear here all the time and nearly always point to Reddit threads.
  - dang 10y ago
    The only part I disagree with you about is this: > Dan could probably explain better than I. Well done.
    - Dylan16807 10y ago
      You've said clickbait titles are against the rules in the past. What is your definition of a clickbait title, if it's not something vague and provocative that requires users to click through to figure out what the topic is? (Note that I am talking purely about titles, not the articles behind them.)
      - dang 10y ago
        Definitions are beyond me, but in this case I don't call it clickbait because it's the title given by the author to a text written from the heart, not to hoodwink or waylay. That makes it content, not bait tacked on later. There's no need for every title to spell everything out. On the contrary, it serves reflection for readers to work a little, and 'reflective' (as opposed to 'reflexive') is the quality we most want here. I wrote about this at https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11979596 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11979596 and https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10161193 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10161193 and a bunch of other places I can't find right now.
        Dylan16807 10y ago
        Most clickbait titles are attached by the author. And in this case the title is written from the heart in the context of reddit, where it has "/r/KerbalSpaceProgram" automatically attached. I cannot agree with categorizing the act of naming the company/brand as "spelling everything out". You have to work equally hard to understand this title with or without the name. It requires reading the post and putting in the same amount of mental effort. But the stripped-down version fails to serve the purpose of setting context. It might as well be a random ID. The posts you linked both have titles that at least set context, whether or not some people wanted more information.
madeofpalk 10y ago
Yeah, I originally thought that this was an announcement from reddit about getting hacked and loosing user data or something like that.
- brazzledazzle 10y ago
  Literally seconds of our lives lost to this outrage.

Good news! A moderator edited the title to drop the "Kerbal Space Program:" Now it's _just_ "There's no easy way to say this" Request granted, eh?

jcrites 10y ago
Dang and other HN staff have said before that they like making readers have to work a bit for the information, and not just be spoonfed in the headlines. I understand it to be about fostering curiosity and wonder. I assume it's also about discouraging people from dismissing an article based on headline alone. ("Kerbal Space Program? I don't know what that is and don't care about it"). Really great HN articles are often an unexpected discovery on a topic I didn't expect to be as interesting as it was. Dan could probably explain better than I. I don't have any information about whether this title was changed or why, but the current title strikes me as lining up with that approach. See also "I'm choosing euthanasia etd 1pm. I have no last words."
- boomlinde 10y ago
  > I understand it to be about fostering curiosity and wonder. I assume it's also about discouraging people from dismissing an article based on headline alone. Quite an euphemistic way to say "clickbait", isn't it?
- imron 10y ago
  The problem in this case is the link went to reddit.com. I first thought this was some announcement reddit was making. I don't mind working for the information, but I don't like misleading information.
  - dang 10y ago
    That's a fair point. But links from reddit.com appear here all the time and nearly always point to Reddit threads.
- dang 10y ago
  The only part I disagree with you about is this: > Dan could probably explain better than I. Well done.
  - Dylan16807 10y ago
    You've said clickbait titles are against the rules in the past. What is your definition of a clickbait title, if it's not something vague and provocative that requires users to click through to figure out what the topic is? (Note that I am talking purely about titles, not the articles behind them.)
    - dang 10y ago
      Definitions are beyond me, but in this case I don't call it clickbait because it's the title given by the author to a text written from the heart, not to hoodwink or waylay. That makes it content, not bait tacked on later. There's no need for every title to spell everything out. On the contrary, it serves reflection for readers to work a little, and 'reflective' (as opposed to 'reflexive') is the quality we most want here. I wrote about this at https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11979596 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11979596 and https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10161193 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10161193 and a bunch of other places I can't find right now.
      - Dylan16807 10y ago
        Most clickbait titles are attached by the author. And in this case the title is written from the heart in the context of reddit, where it has "/r/KerbalSpaceProgram" automatically attached. I cannot agree with categorizing the act of naming the company/brand as "spelling everything out". You have to work equally hard to understand this title with or without the name. It requires reading the post and putting in the same amount of mental effort. But the stripped-down version fails to serve the purpose of setting context. It might as well be a random ID. The posts you linked both have titles that at least set context, whether or not some people wanted more information.

madeofpalk 10y ago

Yeah, I originally thought that this was an announcement from reddit about getting hacked and loosing user data or something like that.

brazzledazzle 10y ago
Literally seconds of our lives lost to this outrage.