4 ms·

Love it. IMHO comments are the best part of HN. I always read the top few comments before clicking the linked URL.

simonebrunozzi 8y ago
I do the same! An TL;DR at the beginning of the thread would be super useful though. Especially when it's a WSJ article behind a paywall.
- samcampbell 8y ago
  Agreed. I'm sure someone is working on this and can be easily applied to HN (maybe https://www.agolo.com/ https://www.agolo.com/)
- nickpsecurity 8y ago
  It's something we do on Lobste.rs. Its guidelines allow a short, purely-factual description just to save people time. On CompSci papers, I always put the abstract in there either whole or trimmed. Some people TL;DR the articles in their comments which happens here, too. Allowing a super-short summary might be a good practice here, too. Especially for long articles or videos. On videos, maybe link to transcript or slides, too, so people don't have to dig them up. It's another thing I try to do over there.
hereathomie 8y ago
Many times I'll just read the comments and not bother reading the linked article at all.
- LeoPanthera 8y ago
  I think most people do this. It's often striking how many people ask questions that are answered in the linked article. The Tesla story currently on the front page is a great example of this.
  - klez 8y ago
    Sometimes I do read the comments without reading the op, but then I won't comment, unless it's something unrelated (like this very comment, for example, even thought in this case I did read the OP). But yes, there's plenty of "Didn't read the article, but...".
asafira 8y ago
I always feel somewhat bad when I do this, but it really is much easier to read the first few comments. For really long articles, I often only read the beginning, catch something I want to comment on, and hope I didn't need the rest for my comment to be valuable. It's not great, and honestly feels a little like in high school when you didn't actually do the full reading assignment for english class, but it can be hard to keep yourself to high standards.
- overcast 8y ago
  I like to think of it as delegating :)
- Bromskloss 8y ago
  The articles are almost never as short and to the point as they could have been. The article authors are at fault.

I do the same! An TL;DR at the beginning of the thread would be super useful though. Especially when it's a WSJ article behind a paywall.

samcampbell 8y ago
Agreed. I'm sure someone is working on this and can be easily applied to HN (maybe https://www.agolo.com/ https://www.agolo.com/)
nickpsecurity 8y ago
It's something we do on Lobste.rs. Its guidelines allow a short, purely-factual description just to save people time. On CompSci papers, I always put the abstract in there either whole or trimmed. Some people TL;DR the articles in their comments which happens here, too. Allowing a super-short summary might be a good practice here, too. Especially for long articles or videos. On videos, maybe link to transcript or slides, too, so people don't have to dig them up. It's another thing I try to do over there.

hereathomie 8y ago

Many times I'll just read the comments and not bother reading the linked article at all.

LeoPanthera 8y ago
I think most people do this. It's often striking how many people ask questions that are answered in the linked article. The Tesla story currently on the front page is a great example of this.
- klez 8y ago
  Sometimes I do read the comments without reading the op, but then I won't comment, unless it's something unrelated (like this very comment, for example, even thought in this case I did read the OP). But yes, there's plenty of "Didn't read the article, but...".

asafira 8y ago

I always feel somewhat bad when I do this, but it really is much easier to read the first few comments. For really long articles, I often only read the beginning, catch something I want to comment on, and hope I didn't need the rest for my comment to be valuable. It's not great, and honestly feels a little like in high school when you didn't actually do the full reading assignment for english class, but it can be hard to keep yourself to high standards.

overcast 8y ago
I like to think of it as delegating :)
Bromskloss 8y ago
The articles are almost never as short and to the point as they could have been. The article authors are at fault.