4 ms·

Advanced HN mod troll: write a dozen slightly different titles and pick a random one on page load

• addaon 5y ago
  Ars Technica basically does this (with two headlines), since the Conde Nast acquisition. Drives me nuts, and makes a significant portion of the post-article discussion incomprehensible.
  • whatshisface 5y ago
    There's something so hilarious about the idea of an HN thread full of people who only read the title, while the website is A/B testing ten different titles.
    • vidarh 5y ago
      I'm looking forward to the GPT3 generated titles using a prompt that involves something along the lines of "Given this excerpt of the HN discussion: .... This is the most amusing title: ..."
• tyho 5y ago
  Pick one deterministically based on src IP address for extra annoyance.
  • hyperpallium2 5y ago
    There is another theory which states that this has already happened.
    • adolph 5y ago
      It might kill a cat to find out.
      • RobRivera 5y ago
        a bridge too far, m8
    • not2b 5y ago
      JWZ will replace links from HN to his site, jwz dot org, with an NSFW image and an insult. It does this based on the Referer: header, so people using Firefox in private browsing mode aren't affected.
      • perihelions 5y ago
        Also people using Firefox' refer[r]er spoofing option* -- a useful anti-evil tool that helps protect you from surveillance adtech. *'network.http.referer.spoofSource' in about:config : "true = send the target URL as the referrer" https://wiki.mozilla.org/Security/Referrer https://wiki.mozilla.org/Security/Referrer