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I'm curious, what problem does it create for you, clicking a link you momentarily thought was to an external site before realising it's actually a discussion on

I'm curious, what problem does it create for you, clicking a link you momentarily thought was to an external site before realising it's actually a discussion on this site? Honest question, you might have a good answer, I'm not trying to be rhetorical.

dewey 5y ago
Maybe not necessarily a "problem" but giving them the right prefix makes them show up in the https://news.ycombinator.com/show https://news.ycombinator.com/show and https://news.ycombinator.com/ask https://news.ycombinator.com/ask header links which are sometimes also implemented in HN apps as separate categories.
andyjohnson0 5y ago
> I'm curious, what problem does it create for you, clicking a link you momentarily thought was to an external site before realising it's actually a discussion on this site? Honest question, you might have a good answer, I'm not trying to be rhetorical. Good question. And my answer is probably that, as things stand, I'm not greatly inconvenienced by it. My original post was motivated mainly by "that's not how it's done here". By internet standards, I think that HN does pretty well as a self-organising community. And part of that is a general, loose adherence to norms. To maintain that community, I think that sometimes it is necessary for its members to point-out those norms in a friendly way - without trying to police anyone's behaviour. Thats really all I was trying to do. To me, an important part of HN's value is to direct me to external things. If the norms change so that a significant number of submissions are hosted directly on the site itself, then HN becomes a very different beast. Probably more inward looking, and maybe more like that other site that the guidelines tell us not to compare it to. I think that would be regrettable. More practically, "Tell HN" and "Ask HN" are hints that the post is addressing the HN community rather than the entire net. That could be useful in deciding whether to read it. And, as a sibling comment mentions, those prefixes result in posts being added to certain lists.
- playpause 5y ago
  Totally agree and to be honest I slightly misunderstood your original comment. You’re definitely being helpful to politely encourage use of the prefix conventions where they are a good fit.
nudpiedo 5y ago
I would prefer to know it AOT as I find it much more insightful, and even more likely to click on the link.

dewey 5y ago

Maybe not necessarily a "problem" but giving them the right prefix makes them show up in the https://news.ycombinator.com/show https://news.ycombinator.com/show and https://news.ycombinator.com/ask https://news.ycombinator.com/ask header links which are sometimes also implemented in HN apps as separate categories.

andyjohnson0 5y ago

> I'm curious, what problem does it create for you, clicking a link you momentarily thought was to an external site before realising it's actually a discussion on this site? Honest question, you might have a good answer, I'm not trying to be rhetorical. Good question. And my answer is probably that, as things stand, I'm not greatly inconvenienced by it. My original post was motivated mainly by "that's not how it's done here". By internet standards, I think that HN does pretty well as a self-organising community. And part of that is a general, loose adherence to norms. To maintain that community, I think that sometimes it is necessary for its members to point-out those norms in a friendly way - without trying to police anyone's behaviour. Thats really all I was trying to do. To me, an important part of HN's value is to direct me to external things. If the norms change so that a significant number of submissions are hosted directly on the site itself, then HN becomes a very different beast. Probably more inward looking, and maybe more like that other site that the guidelines tell us not to compare it to. I think that would be regrettable. More practically, "Tell HN" and "Ask HN" are hints that the post is addressing the HN community rather than the entire net. That could be useful in deciding whether to read it. And, as a sibling comment mentions, those prefixes result in posts being added to certain lists.

playpause 5y ago
Totally agree and to be honest I slightly misunderstood your original comment. You’re definitely being helpful to politely encourage use of the prefix conventions where they are a good fit.

nudpiedo 5y ago

I would prefer to know it AOT as I find it much more insightful, and even more likely to click on the link.