3 ms·
2019
by CoastalCoder 3y ago
2019
- signa11 3y agoyes ?
- eesmith 3y agoKnowing that it's from a few years ago gives helpful information to the potential reader. 1) Someone may have read the essay before, remembered the point, but forgotten the exact title. It has, after all, been posted on HN twice before. Simply reading the comment that it's from 4 years ago may be enough to confirm that it's the same article, as it did with me. While the essay has the date right at the top, in general there is no consistency about where people post a date, or if there is one at all. I know that I sometimes skim the HN comments first rather than follow a page link because then I don't need to worry about cookie notices, requests to subscribe to a newsletter, etc. This essay does not have those, but enough do that it's a general nuisance. 2) Software changes over time. Cap'n Proto's Schema language may have changed since then - perhaps as a response to this essay - making this essay of historic interest only. While that is not likely the case, it is an example of how having the date may provide helpful information. This is useful enough that it is accepted practice to add the date to older information. For example, the previous two HN submissions to this essay both include (2019) in the title. See https://news.ycombinator.com/from?site=zenhack.net https://news.ycombinator.com/from?site=zenhack.net
- gjvc 3y agoKnowing that it's from a few years ago gives helpful information to the potential reader. because it's so difficult to find the date of publication before people waste their precious time goofing off from their overpaid jobs.
- orhmeh09 3y agoThe submission guidelines contain no such allowance. They specify a very limited set of cases where the title of a submission can be modified from the web page title.
- CoastalCoder 3y agoThanks. I wasn't aware that putting a date in the title might violate the guidelines.
- eesmith 3y agoIt does not. You can see dang, one of the moderators, write: "It's the convention on HN to add the year to a title when the article isn't from this year." at https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=27867435 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=27867435 , write "On HN, it's the convention to add the year when a story is more than a year and a bit old." at https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16306830 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16306830 and write "It's just the convention to add the year in parens (and for commenters to mention when we missed one)." at https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8244765 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8244765 . Found via https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=true&query=%22dang%22%20%22add%20the%20year%22&sort=byPopularity&type=comment https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=true&que... . If orhmeh09 has issue with how to interpret the submission guidelines, I suggest contacting hn@ycombinator.com to resolve the issue.
- CoastalCoder 3y agoThanks for clarifying the rules. In retrospect, my original comment was probably too terse. It's not obvious if I was suggesting that "(2019)" be added to the title, or if I was claiming that the article was outdated for some reason. That's my fault.
- orhmeh09 3y agoThe guidelines are here. It's unreasonable to expect people to search for them in a comment. https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html
- eesmith 3y agoAs this is identical to orhmeh09's comment at https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37215578 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37215578 I point to my response at https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37221400 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37221400 .
- CoastalCoder 3y agoYeah, that ^^^^ was pretty much my reasoning. Thanks for articulating it so clearly. Honestly I didn't expect my original comment to be controversial.
- scrame 3y agodoes that invalidate the criticisms?
- gary_0 3y agoIt's common on HN to note the date for reposts. The mods will usually add the year to the title if it's not included. So that's probably all that CoastalCoder was signaling.
- orhmeh09 3y agoUsers are not advised to do this themselves. The submission guidelines contain no such allowance. They specify a very limited set of cases where the title of a submission can be modified from the web page title.
- eesmith 3y agoThis is a long-established convention to include the year if the article is a year and a bit old. See dang, one of the moderators, affirm this multiple times at https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=true&query=dang%20convention%20%22the%20year%22&sort=byDate&type=comment https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=true&que... , most recently 17 days ago.
- orhmeh09 3y agoThe guidelines are here. It's unreasonable to expect people to search for them in a comment. https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html
- eesmith 3y agoGuidelines are not strict rules, as Captain Barbossa pointed out, but let's assume they are. Since moderators have promoted this practice for at least a decade, it's much more likely your interpretation of the guidelines which is wrong. Any moderately good rules lawyer would point out the guideline is "please use the original title" not "please use only the original title" nor the even stronger "use only the original title", which turns the polite request into a requirement. Adding the year is not editorializing. Nor is adding "[video]" or "[pdf]", nor even adding the conference name and year as https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37216895 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37216895 did 11 hours ago. Since there appears to be a conflict between your understanding of the guidelines and that of the moderators, you should take it up with them at hn@ycombinator.com in hopes of resolving the issue. After all, the guidelines say "If you're worried about abuse, email hn@ycombinator.com and we'll look at the data." ;)