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Man, I get sick of the incessant title criticism on HN. I wish the quality of the title wasn't such a go to topic. Unless the title is grievously misrepresent

Man, I get sick of the incessant title criticism on HN. I wish the quality of the title wasn't such a go to topic. Unless the title is grievously misrepresenting, let's just discuss the topic.

The_Hoff 9y ago
Maybe we can make this the go to reply on these comments.
jasonkostempski 9y ago
But then we all miss out on the title criticism criticisms.
doublerebel 9y ago
Yes the latest crowd has created some memes for themselves. I agree we need to extinguish them for the sake of continued quality HN discussion. Including: - X software package name reminds/confuses me of Y product with similar name - X title is garbage. Here is the title I would write... - I don't understand [basic concept available on Wikipedia]. Someone explain it to me (aka lazyweb) - I'm not an expert on this, but [completely unqualified and uncited conjecture] - I also once did X from TFA and [unrelated personal anecdote with no insight] (aka long form "me too" comment) I come to HN so that I can read informed discussion from people who work in the field of TFA. To read discussion of basic topics between the uninformed, there is everywhere else on the internet.
- Yen 9y ago
  I mean, unlike a lot of aggregation sites, HN has a specific policy about link titles, which is generally sensible and does the right thing. (https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html) Sure, in some cases, implementation of this policy fails, and something is rewritten that shouldn't be, or something should be rewritten that isn't. But, I'd estimate maybe 80% of all discussions about titles, that I've seen, have been valid concerns, and typically resulted in a rewrite.
  - doublerebel 9y ago
    I have long been familiar with HN's policies. OP did not suggest a new title, they instead posted a long quote from TFA and added an oversimplified summary -- which I'm not sure adds to quality discussion. Articles which are only clickbait should be flagged. Correcting the title on a good article is different from complaining.
- awakeasleep 9y ago
  That meme of "I don't understand [basic concept from wikipedia, googleable phrase, dictionary word] can you explain it?" Has infected the hell out of our company Slack. It's considered very rude to not answer. I feel like when I was coming up, where IRC or mailing lists were a thing, having done all possible research before asking humans was an absolute cultural requirement. It sucked at first, but I definitely miss that and long for the old days. It was so much more respectful and efficient.
thomastjeffery 9y ago
There is a [-] that you can click to minimize any thread you do not wish to read.
- mikestew 9y ago
  "Just delete it if you don't want to read it", said every contributor and defender of low-quality content ever. I've been hearing this since Usenet was popular, and yet the pattern doesn't change. Can you picture Donald Knuth typing, "just delete it if you don't want to read what I write"? No, because he doesn't have to.
mikestew 9y ago
I sometimes wonder if it isn't almost literal bike shedding: I have nothing to contribute on the topic it hand, but I'm compelled to contribute, so I'll go on about the title. Obviously there are some egregious examples that are correctly called out, in this case, yeah, I saw "the title is terrible" and quit reading.
- Gigablah 9y ago
  Other similar types of responses: - this project/library/company name is terrible - this website hijacks my scroll bar - this website doesn’t render well in mobile - I can’t read this site because it’s too narrow - I can’t read this site because it’s too wide
  - mikestew 9y ago
    The last four I’m willing to forgive as a warning to the large demographic of HN: in case any of you other yahoos think this is a good idea, it’s not.

Man, I get sick of the incessant title criticism on HN. I wish the quality of the title wasn't such a go to topic. Unless the title is grievously misrepresenting, let's just discuss the topic.

The_Hoff 9y ago

Maybe we can make this the go to reply on these comments.

jasonkostempski 9y ago

But then we all miss out on the title criticism criticisms.

doublerebel 9y ago

Yes the latest crowd has created some memes for themselves. I agree we need to extinguish them for the sake of continued quality HN discussion. Including: - X software package name reminds/confuses me of Y product with similar name - X title is garbage. Here is the title I would write... - I don't understand [basic concept available on Wikipedia]. Someone explain it to me (aka lazyweb) - I'm not an expert on this, but [completely unqualified and uncited conjecture] - I also once did X from TFA and [unrelated personal anecdote with no insight] (aka long form "me too" comment) I come to HN so that I can read informed discussion from people who work in the field of TFA. To read discussion of basic topics between the uninformed, there is everywhere else on the internet.

Yen 9y ago
I mean, unlike a lot of aggregation sites, HN has a specific policy about link titles, which is generally sensible and does the right thing. (https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html) Sure, in some cases, implementation of this policy fails, and something is rewritten that shouldn't be, or something should be rewritten that isn't. But, I'd estimate maybe 80% of all discussions about titles, that I've seen, have been valid concerns, and typically resulted in a rewrite.
- doublerebel 9y ago
  I have long been familiar with HN's policies. OP did not suggest a new title, they instead posted a long quote from TFA and added an oversimplified summary -- which I'm not sure adds to quality discussion. Articles which are only clickbait should be flagged. Correcting the title on a good article is different from complaining.
awakeasleep 9y ago
That meme of "I don't understand [basic concept from wikipedia, googleable phrase, dictionary word] can you explain it?" Has infected the hell out of our company Slack. It's considered very rude to not answer. I feel like when I was coming up, where IRC or mailing lists were a thing, having done all possible research before asking humans was an absolute cultural requirement. It sucked at first, but I definitely miss that and long for the old days. It was so much more respectful and efficient.

thomastjeffery 9y ago

There is a [-] that you can click to minimize any thread you do not wish to read.

mikestew 9y ago
"Just delete it if you don't want to read it", said every contributor and defender of low-quality content ever. I've been hearing this since Usenet was popular, and yet the pattern doesn't change. Can you picture Donald Knuth typing, "just delete it if you don't want to read what I write"? No, because he doesn't have to.

mikestew 9y ago

I sometimes wonder if it isn't almost literal bike shedding: I have nothing to contribute on the topic it hand, but I'm compelled to contribute, so I'll go on about the title. Obviously there are some egregious examples that are correctly called out, in this case, yeah, I saw "the title is terrible" and quit reading.

Gigablah 9y ago
Other similar types of responses: - this project/library/company name is terrible - this website hijacks my scroll bar - this website doesn’t render well in mobile - I can’t read this site because it’s too narrow - I can’t read this site because it’s too wide
- mikestew 9y ago
  The last four I’m willing to forgive as a warning to the large demographic of HN: in case any of you other yahoos think this is a good idea, it’s not.