3 ms·

How does this further the aims of HN?

by jessriedel 10y ago

sn9 10y ago
By forcing people to respond to or otherwise discuss the contents of the article instead of the headline.
- deleted 10y ago
  [deleted]
- theoh 10y ago
  Actually it seems like dang was making a moralistic point that I'm not sure about. Sometimes a suggestive, catchy but perhaps uninformative title is linkbait (and should be replaced), but sometimes such a title is not "bait" but instead something we just have to accept as given? Hmmm.
  - tomhoward 10y ago
    There's a difference between piquing curiosity and exploiting emotions. Of course there's a grey area, and this story may be closer to the line than usual, but wherever the line is, it's fair enough for dang to judge that this title is on the right side of it. Personally I don't see how the title misrepresents the content in the article, or tricks anyone into reading something they'd be better off not to have read.
- jessriedel 10y ago
  That would suggest removing all titles.
- baddox 10y ago
  There is delightful irony in that statement in this comment thread.
dang 10y ago
Good question! I've posted about this from time to time. Here are some links if you care: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10077754 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10077754 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11979596 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11979596 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10161193 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10161193 https://hn.algolia.com/?sort=byDate&dateRange=all&type=comment&storyText=false&prefix&page=0&query=by:dang%20%22work%20a%20little%22 https://hn.algolia.com/?sort=byDate&dateRange=all&type=comme... https://hn.algolia.com/?sort=byDate&prefix&page=0&dateRange=all&type=comment&query=by:dang%20reflexive%20slow https://hn.algolia.com/?sort=byDate&prefix&page=0&dateRange=... The bottom line is that occasionally having to stop and work a little acts as a speed bump that slows down the usual internet reflexes, making reflective responses a bit more likely. Reflective responses are what we're hoping for here. If you introspect a bit you can catch yourself getting irritably impatient at having to take 5 seconds rather than half a second to process something on the internet. That's the reflex I'm talking about. The problem is that in that mode our responses are automatic, therefore predictable, therefore uninteresting.
- jessriedel 10y ago
  I read the first three comments and they all say roughly the same thing. But I can't figure why you think this functions as you hypothesize. Do you have data? Why not move the buttons on HN to random parts of the page? Or randomize the article titles every time you reload HN, so you're never sure whether you've already read an article? Or swap one comment between threads to keep people on their toes? Wouldn't those all be equally plausible ways to get people to read things more carefully by sacrificing usability? Your other comments suggest that you would be against tl;dr's, which outside the internet are known as "abstracts", and (like descriptive titles) are known to be highly useful.

How does this further the aims of HN?

sn9 10y ago

By forcing people to respond to or otherwise discuss the contents of the article instead of the headline.

deleted 10y ago
[deleted]
theoh 10y ago
Actually it seems like dang was making a moralistic point that I'm not sure about. Sometimes a suggestive, catchy but perhaps uninformative title is linkbait (and should be replaced), but sometimes such a title is not "bait" but instead something we just have to accept as given? Hmmm.
- tomhoward 10y ago
  There's a difference between piquing curiosity and exploiting emotions. Of course there's a grey area, and this story may be closer to the line than usual, but wherever the line is, it's fair enough for dang to judge that this title is on the right side of it. Personally I don't see how the title misrepresents the content in the article, or tricks anyone into reading something they'd be better off not to have read.
jessriedel 10y ago
That would suggest removing all titles.
baddox 10y ago
There is delightful irony in that statement in this comment thread.

dang 10y ago

Good question! I've posted about this from time to time. Here are some links if you care: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10077754 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10077754 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11979596 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11979596 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10161193 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10161193 https://hn.algolia.com/?sort=byDate&dateRange=all&type=comment&storyText=false&prefix&page=0&query=by:dang%20%22work%20a%20little%22 https://hn.algolia.com/?sort=byDate&dateRange=all&type=comme... https://hn.algolia.com/?sort=byDate&prefix&page=0&dateRange=all&type=comment&query=by:dang%20reflexive%20slow https://hn.algolia.com/?sort=byDate&prefix&page=0&dateRange=... The bottom line is that occasionally having to stop and work a little acts as a speed bump that slows down the usual internet reflexes, making reflective responses a bit more likely. Reflective responses are what we're hoping for here. If you introspect a bit you can catch yourself getting irritably impatient at having to take 5 seconds rather than half a second to process something on the internet. That's the reflex I'm talking about. The problem is that in that mode our responses are automatic, therefore predictable, therefore uninteresting.

jessriedel 10y ago
I read the first three comments and they all say roughly the same thing. But I can't figure why you think this functions as you hypothesize. Do you have data? Why not move the buttons on HN to random parts of the page? Or randomize the article titles every time you reload HN, so you're never sure whether you've already read an article? Or swap one comment between threads to keep people on their toes? Wouldn't those all be equally plausible ways to get people to read things more carefully by sacrificing usability? Your other comments suggest that you would be against tl;dr's, which outside the internet are known as "abstracts", and (like descriptive titles) are known to be highly useful.