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Exactly. This is why without the original title nobody who's not into Ruby would even consider reading it. And only a fraction of those people who are into Ruby

Exactly. This is why without the original title nobody who's not into Ruby would even consider reading it. And only a fraction of those people who are into Ruby and upvoted it would consider upvoting it. Thanks for confirming it.

coldtea 3y ago
Well, it's not meant for people not into Ruby.
- starbugs 3y ago
  Well, maybe read the original title again: "Ruby Outperforms C: Breaking the Catch-22"
  - coldtea 3y ago
    Still not meant for people not interested into Ruby.
    - starbugs 3y ago
      Got it. The title of an article is a detail and this title in particular doesn't draw any attention from people interested in C or the claims made by performance comparisons between different types of programming languages in general. That's probably also the reason why the title was changed on HN after this criticism was made and the submission disappeared from the front page a short while after that.
      - nirvdrum 3y ago
        I get your point, but it's a blog post by a Ruby & Rails core member, published on a Ruby-oriented blog named "Rails at Scale", with a particular audience in mind, and is written as a response to an ongoing discussion in the Ruby community. In context, I think the title is fine. But, for those without the context the title may be misleading. At no point is the goal to convince people to throw away C and switch to Ruby for everything.
        starbugs 3y ago
        This title in particular encourages sharing the article out of context, because it is a bit sensational. That's why the title is so important. If an article is aimed at a particular audience only and could be misunderstood otherwise, that's a good indication that the title should reflect that fact. (As the revised one does.) As a sidenote: This submission has been tried multiple times on HN and it would very likely not have been successful here without the sensational title. [0] 0. https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=true&query=ruby%20outperforms%20c&sort=byPopularity&type=story https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=true&que...

coldtea 3y ago

Well, it's not meant for people not into Ruby.

starbugs 3y ago
Well, maybe read the original title again: "Ruby Outperforms C: Breaking the Catch-22"
- coldtea 3y ago
  Still not meant for people not interested into Ruby.
  - starbugs 3y ago
    Got it. The title of an article is a detail and this title in particular doesn't draw any attention from people interested in C or the claims made by performance comparisons between different types of programming languages in general. That's probably also the reason why the title was changed on HN after this criticism was made and the submission disappeared from the front page a short while after that.
    - nirvdrum 3y ago
      I get your point, but it's a blog post by a Ruby & Rails core member, published on a Ruby-oriented blog named "Rails at Scale", with a particular audience in mind, and is written as a response to an ongoing discussion in the Ruby community. In context, I think the title is fine. But, for those without the context the title may be misleading. At no point is the goal to convince people to throw away C and switch to Ruby for everything.
      - starbugs 3y ago
        This title in particular encourages sharing the article out of context, because it is a bit sensational. That's why the title is so important. If an article is aimed at a particular audience only and could be misunderstood otherwise, that's a good indication that the title should reflect that fact. (As the revised one does.) As a sidenote: This submission has been tried multiple times on HN and it would very likely not have been successful here without the sensational title. [0] 0. https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=true&query=ruby%20outperforms%20c&sort=byPopularity&type=story https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=true&que...