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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: -

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.

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.