4 ms·

Domain name should give a clue. Plus, a little bit of randomness is the spice of life.

CyberDildonics 6y ago
Don't rationalize clickbait. This site doesn't allow comments without substance, but for some reason link titles don't have the same standards.
- hyperpape 6y ago
  The title wasn't written for you, but that doesn't make it clickbait. That's true even though it's not a great title. The author is a physicist/computer scientist writing on his personal blog. He is writing about some of his own work, 20 years later, and his likely audience probably has context about that work, or will be linked from somewhere that provides that context. The fact that you and I stumbled upon it from a decontextualized aggregator is a bug.
  - CyberDildonics 6y ago
    It wouldn't be a bug if there was more information than "20 years later"
  - fireattack 6y ago
    Totally unrelated, but why is he in Math department instead of Physics?
    - cambalache 6y ago
      Peter Woit(the author) is a lecturer in the department of mathematics at Columbia University. He is kind of a black sheep in the high-energy physics world. He has a PhD in physics from Harvard, so he certainly has the credentials but his academic career stalled/never took off, so after some post-docs he took a job at Columbia teaching mathematics and maintaining the computer network of the department. A fact that has not passed unnoticed by his "enemies"(many string theorists),so they use that to mock him and dismiss his not entirely unreasonable criticism of ST. That shows you that eminent physicists can be as tribalistic, petty and emotional as a stereotypical 14 year old girl.
- segfaultbuserr 6y ago
  No, clickbaits are usually disallowed in the title. The rule is use original title, most of the time it's indeed an anti-clickbait rule (although some false negatives are unavoidable). > Please don't do things to make titles stand out, like using uppercase or exclamation points, or saying how great an article is. It's implicit in submitting something that you think it's important. > [...] Please use the original title, unless it is misleading or linkbait; don't editorialize. My personal observation, there are three types of bad titles. 1. Clickbait titles editorialized by a submitter to make everyone know how great/important the article is. 2. Clickbait titles from the source. 3. Non-descriptive title from the source. 60% of the bad titles are Type-1 title from the submitters (as everyone who ever browsed Reddit would know). To prevent such behaviors, the "use original title" rule is implemented on Hacker News. 30% of the titles are Type-2 title. On Hacker News, if many readers loudly criticize that the original title is misleading, eventually a moderator will correct it manually. 10% of the titles are Type-3 title, non-descriptive title that contain little information, but it's neither misleading or clickbait. On Hacker News, usually, nothing happens. This article is one of them. Also, any attempt to change the title could be seen as Type-1 title editorialization, so the original title remains. So sometimes, even after the title has been changed by the submitter to be more descriptive, it could be reverted back to the original, non-descriptive one. > This site doesn't allow comments without substance, but for some reason link titles don't have the same standards. Whenever people compliant that Hacker News allows non-descriptive titles, please consider the fact that "use the original title" does more good than harm in general with a false negative rate of only 10%, which is a small price to pay.
AnimalMuppet 6y ago
The domain name doesn't give me a clue that it's about physics, instead of, say, sociology or something.
- throwaway98797 6y ago
  Okay princess.

Don't rationalize clickbait. This site doesn't allow comments without substance, but for some reason link titles don't have the same standards.

hyperpape 6y ago
The title wasn't written for you, but that doesn't make it clickbait. That's true even though it's not a great title. The author is a physicist/computer scientist writing on his personal blog. He is writing about some of his own work, 20 years later, and his likely audience probably has context about that work, or will be linked from somewhere that provides that context. The fact that you and I stumbled upon it from a decontextualized aggregator is a bug.
- CyberDildonics 6y ago
  It wouldn't be a bug if there was more information than "20 years later"
- fireattack 6y ago
  Totally unrelated, but why is he in Math department instead of Physics?
  - cambalache 6y ago
    Peter Woit(the author) is a lecturer in the department of mathematics at Columbia University. He is kind of a black sheep in the high-energy physics world. He has a PhD in physics from Harvard, so he certainly has the credentials but his academic career stalled/never took off, so after some post-docs he took a job at Columbia teaching mathematics and maintaining the computer network of the department. A fact that has not passed unnoticed by his "enemies"(many string theorists),so they use that to mock him and dismiss his not entirely unreasonable criticism of ST. That shows you that eminent physicists can be as tribalistic, petty and emotional as a stereotypical 14 year old girl.
segfaultbuserr 6y ago
No, clickbaits are usually disallowed in the title. The rule is use original title, most of the time it's indeed an anti-clickbait rule (although some false negatives are unavoidable). > Please don't do things to make titles stand out, like using uppercase or exclamation points, or saying how great an article is. It's implicit in submitting something that you think it's important. > [...] Please use the original title, unless it is misleading or linkbait; don't editorialize. My personal observation, there are three types of bad titles. 1. Clickbait titles editorialized by a submitter to make everyone know how great/important the article is. 2. Clickbait titles from the source. 3. Non-descriptive title from the source. 60% of the bad titles are Type-1 title from the submitters (as everyone who ever browsed Reddit would know). To prevent such behaviors, the "use original title" rule is implemented on Hacker News. 30% of the titles are Type-2 title. On Hacker News, if many readers loudly criticize that the original title is misleading, eventually a moderator will correct it manually. 10% of the titles are Type-3 title, non-descriptive title that contain little information, but it's neither misleading or clickbait. On Hacker News, usually, nothing happens. This article is one of them. Also, any attempt to change the title could be seen as Type-1 title editorialization, so the original title remains. So sometimes, even after the title has been changed by the submitter to be more descriptive, it could be reverted back to the original, non-descriptive one. > This site doesn't allow comments without substance, but for some reason link titles don't have the same standards. Whenever people compliant that Hacker News allows non-descriptive titles, please consider the fact that "use the original title" does more good than harm in general with a false negative rate of only 10%, which is a small price to pay.

AnimalMuppet 6y ago

The domain name doesn't give me a clue that it's about physics, instead of, say, sociology or something.

throwaway98797 6y ago
Okay princess.