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Thanks. Annoying that clickbait titles are allowed here.

speedgoose 6y ago
The title gives all the information you need : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Betteridge%27s_law_of_headlines https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Betteridge%27s_law_of_headline... If it was not a real mute, it would not be a question in the title but a statement such as "Amazon Echo Flex Teardown: The Microphone Mute is Fake".
- tolbish 6y ago
  > Like similar "laws" (e.g., Murphy's law), it is intended to be humorous rather than the literal truth.
  - speedgoose 6y ago
    For sure.
- jobigoud 6y ago
  The title is not a yes/no question. You can't answer "is it real or fake?" by "no", the law doesn't apply and you have to take the bait to get the answer.
  - speedgoose 6y ago
    You got the point, if it was fake the title would very very likely be different.
colejohnson66 6y ago
The rule is there not to prevent clickbait, but to prevent editorializing the title when it’s posted. The reason is editorializing inserts biases and possible wrongs (unintentionally). However, it is clickbait, by definition, but it’s not clickbait. If it was, I’d expect: “You’ll never guess what your Echo Flex does when you do this one thing!”
coldtea 6y ago
The writers don't write for our amusement here and according to our criteria on HN, they writes as it pleases them. They went to the length to do a useful breakdown of a circuit, and write about it. They don't owe us some nice title, or some convenient summary so we don't read their post...
- renewiltord 6y ago
  Haha, they don't, but we owe ourselves that so we should submit with that info.
  - bigiain 6y ago
    That's not what the site guidelines say... "Otherwise please use the original title, unless it is misleading or linkbait; don't editorialize." Use the original titles.
    - samatman 6y ago
      I would argue that the "Real or Fake?" part is clickbait-y, and the poster could have rewritten it to answer the question. This has come up before, and titles have been rewritten accordingly. Me? Title like that, I just skip to the comments, there's always someone at the top to sort me out.

The title gives all the information you need : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Betteridge%27s_law_of_headlines https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Betteridge%27s_law_of_headline... If it was not a real mute, it would not be a question in the title but a statement such as "Amazon Echo Flex Teardown: The Microphone Mute is Fake".

tolbish 6y ago
> Like similar "laws" (e.g., Murphy's law), it is intended to be humorous rather than the literal truth.
- speedgoose 6y ago
  For sure.
jobigoud 6y ago
The title is not a yes/no question. You can't answer "is it real or fake?" by "no", the law doesn't apply and you have to take the bait to get the answer.
- speedgoose 6y ago
  You got the point, if it was fake the title would very very likely be different.

colejohnson66 6y ago

The rule is there not to prevent clickbait, but to prevent editorializing the title when it’s posted. The reason is editorializing inserts biases and possible wrongs (unintentionally). However, it is clickbait, by definition, but it’s not clickbait. If it was, I’d expect: “You’ll never guess what your Echo Flex does when you do this one thing!”

coldtea 6y ago

The writers don't write for our amusement here and according to our criteria on HN, they writes as it pleases them. They went to the length to do a useful breakdown of a circuit, and write about it. They don't owe us some nice title, or some convenient summary so we don't read their post...

renewiltord 6y ago
Haha, they don't, but we owe ourselves that so we should submit with that info.
- bigiain 6y ago
  That's not what the site guidelines say... "Otherwise please use the original title, unless it is misleading or linkbait; don't editorialize." Use the original titles.
  - samatman 6y ago
    I would argue that the "Real or Fake?" part is clickbait-y, and the poster could have rewritten it to answer the question. This has come up before, and titles have been rewritten accordingly. Me? Title like that, I just skip to the comments, there's always someone at the top to sort me out.