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I mean this as a constructive complaint, not just for this post, but many posts on HN: I do wish the titles of submissions included some context that would clue
by jbgreer 5y ago
I mean this as a constructive complaint, not just for this post, but many posts on HN: I do wish the titles of submissions included some context that would clue me into the nature of the product, service, or meaning of the submission. I do not fault the submitter.
I know that this desire conflicts with the submission guideline to avoid modification of the original title unless misleading. I understand that this technique can sometimes foster curiosity, and cause users to follow links and learn about new things. Still, I often read submissions and even websites that assume a level of familiarity that act as a barrier to followup simply because I miss a useful connection.
I also recognize that this may be perceived as mere laziness on my part, and you're right, it is. Suggested title:
Terraform v1.0 Release: Allows users to declaratively describe infrastructure configuration on multiple public clouds.
Alternatively, a submission content tagging scheme could work, but that introduces other challenges. [ ML content tagging system, anyone? ]
- seanhunter 5y agoThis would significantly degrade the HN experience for me for two reasons. Firstly it would make submission titles much longer and therefore make the hn page less compact. Secondly it would open the door to editorializing in the submission title, which is generally undesireable. In this specific instance, terraform is not exactly an obscure piece of tech. Do you really think your suggested title is an improvement?
- jbgreer 5y agoI also prefer shorter titles. Do you consider my suggested title editorializing? If so, how?
- seanhunter 5y agoI'm not saying your title was, just that people posting titles would often struggle to keep them neutral. This would be especially the case in topics that tend to be hot-button areas for HN such as privacy, anything to do with US politics, free speech vs platform moderation etc.
- jbgreer 5y agoAlso, with respect to your comment "Terraform is not exactly obscure tech": you're right. Google estimates there are "About 14,200,000 results". My desire for context is not only to address obscurity, but also disambiguation. Perhaps Terraform is not the best example. That said, without checking, did you know what FizzyGum is? https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=27421401 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=27421401 Kindly note the top comment and responses.
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- lopatin 5y agoI don't see any issue with the title. This is hacker _news_. The news here is that a new release is out. For those that don't use Terraform, your suggested title could be interpreted that declaratively describing infrastructure on multi-cloud is a new v1.0 feature. And those that do use Terraform of course don't need the intro.