4 ms·

Nowadays I never visit the actual article, just going through HN comments will often summarize the topic better.

wjh_ 9y ago
Probably not the best idea. While they do tend to summarise well, comments tend to be filled with opinion - generally a better idea to ensure you form your own, rather than rely on a potentially biased third party.
- wnoise 9y ago
  The original article is also generally biased and filled with opinion. At least the comments might have a diversity of bias.
  - ErikBjare 9y ago
    This is what I've been telling myself. Usually skim the article and then read the comments.
    - copperx 9y ago
      Just accept you're being lazy. Nothing wrong with that, though.
- nikkwong 9y ago
  I also find that the discussions in certain comments/responses can tend to go largely off topic. When you're on mobile, instead of scrolling ALL the way down to the next parent comment, you (I, at least), tend to navigate away to other HN posts.
  - just4themoney 9y ago
    HN has comment folding. Activate it by clicking the minus sign next to the "timestamp" to hide the comment and it's children.
- awkwarddaturtle 9y ago
  But the article is a biased opinion of a single third party? It's better to rely on HN comments where the discussion is open rather than blindly accepting what a journalist writes.
dsgriffin 9y ago
This + the fact it feels like every other article being posted on HN is behind a paywall
carbocation 9y ago
On HN, you'll sometimes even get domain experts weighing in with commentary, and links to other relevant material. Here's the original article, with weighting[1] and in fulltext[2]: 1 = https://pubrank.carbocation.com/pmid/27217114 https://pubrank.carbocation.com/pmid/27217114 2 = https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5015806/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5015806/
- sillysaurus3 9y ago
  My favorite HN moment was when we were all debating whether a crew could burn a shipwrecked boat for several years. Someone who happened to be burning a boat for fuel for years stepped in and confirmed it. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10803552 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10803552
  - toomuchtodo 9y ago
    Thank you for posting this!
  - cossatot 9y ago
    Mine (in this vein at least) was when someone posted an article about optimizing FedEx's location and then someone who was involved with it stepped in and gave the real story: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9281466 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9281466
5_minutes 9y ago
I do the same when I'm roaming and need to save bandwidth! Very efficient.

wjh_ 9y ago

Probably not the best idea. While they do tend to summarise well, comments tend to be filled with opinion - generally a better idea to ensure you form your own, rather than rely on a potentially biased third party.

wnoise 9y ago
The original article is also generally biased and filled with opinion. At least the comments might have a diversity of bias.
- ErikBjare 9y ago
  This is what I've been telling myself. Usually skim the article and then read the comments.
  - copperx 9y ago
    Just accept you're being lazy. Nothing wrong with that, though.
nikkwong 9y ago
I also find that the discussions in certain comments/responses can tend to go largely off topic. When you're on mobile, instead of scrolling ALL the way down to the next parent comment, you (I, at least), tend to navigate away to other HN posts.
- just4themoney 9y ago
  HN has comment folding. Activate it by clicking the minus sign next to the "timestamp" to hide the comment and it's children.
awkwarddaturtle 9y ago
But the article is a biased opinion of a single third party? It's better to rely on HN comments where the discussion is open rather than blindly accepting what a journalist writes.

dsgriffin 9y ago

This + the fact it feels like every other article being posted on HN is behind a paywall

carbocation 9y ago

On HN, you'll sometimes even get domain experts weighing in with commentary, and links to other relevant material. Here's the original article, with weighting[1] and in fulltext[2]: 1 = https://pubrank.carbocation.com/pmid/27217114 https://pubrank.carbocation.com/pmid/27217114 2 = https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5015806/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5015806/

sillysaurus3 9y ago
My favorite HN moment was when we were all debating whether a crew could burn a shipwrecked boat for several years. Someone who happened to be burning a boat for fuel for years stepped in and confirmed it. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10803552 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10803552
- toomuchtodo 9y ago
  Thank you for posting this!
- cossatot 9y ago
  Mine (in this vein at least) was when someone posted an article about optimizing FedEx's location and then someone who was involved with it stepped in and gave the real story: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9281466 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9281466

5_minutes 9y ago

I do the same when I'm roaming and need to save bandwidth! Very efficient.