3 ms·
HN's blob of title rules are not really 'literal titles' but also include things like 'it's ok to have to click to find out what something is about'. Plus preve
by pvg 4y ago
HN's blob of title rules are not really 'literal titles' but also include things like 'it's ok to have to click to find out what something is about'. Plus preventing editorializing ends up being a more important goal than knowing what every post might be up front. You can think of it as a bit of curiosity roulette.
A better (and often recommended) solution is to submit more interesting articles about a topic than the generic Wikipedia one. Those tend to have better titles as a free bonus.
- lucb1e 4y ago> it's ok to have to click to find out what something is about Imagine the front page was actually like that. Unless you know the random keyword, you'd have to literally click every link to find out whether you're interested in it. I cannot find the claimed rule in the guidelines anyhow (https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html).
- pvg 4y agoImagine the front page was actually like that. The front page is like that? It's just that most titles are obvious to most people but they certainly aren't to everyone. A tiny minority aren't 'majority-obvious' but that's fine. As to guidelines, it's not explicitly in there but there have been many mod comments about it, it's in the title caselaw.
- pavlov 4y agoI always check out the comments first to find out whether I’m interested in the link… Worked fine for this one too.