3 ms·

Yeah, I really hate the "no changing titles" rule. I can understand something like "don't sensationalize", but many articles just have poor titles that lack con

Yeah, I really hate the "no changing titles" rule. I can understand something like "don't sensationalize", but many articles just have poor titles that lack context. What does that accomplish aside from discouraging readership and discussion?

mortenjorck 3y ago
The rule is officially "don't editorialize" which I would interpret (perhaps incorrectly) as allowing a little leeway in surfacing a buried lede so long as it's presented in neutral language. Something like "Amazing Llama 2 7B performance on M2 Ultra" would obviously fail that test, but the current title of "M2 Ultra can run 128 streams of Llama 2 7B in parallel" seems to follow the spirit of the rule, at least as I read it.
- solardev 3y ago
  I think the guidelines[1] say not just "don't editorialize", but (emphasis added): > Otherwise please use the original title, unless it is misleading or linkbait; don't editorialize. [1] https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html
  - mtillman 3y ago
    Except the original title in my experience is always longer than they allow.
latexr 3y ago
> I really hate the "no changing titles" rule. That’s not the rule. https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html It allows for plenty of leeway, and in my experience alternative titles are accepted and will stand unless they are significantly worse than the original. It happens even with major announcements with hundreds of votes. @dang isn’t some mindless robot who must always enforce one way of doing things. The instructions are, as the page title suggests, guidelines.
- solardev 3y ago
  It specifically says... > If the title includes the name of the site, please take it out, because the site name will be displayed after the link. > If the title contains a gratuitous number or number + adjective, we'd appreciate it if you'd crop it. E.g. translate "10 Ways To Do X" to "How To Do X," and "14 Amazing Ys" to "Ys." Exception: when the number is meaningful, e.g. "The 5 Platonic Solids." > Otherwise please use the original title, unless it is misleading or linkbait; don't editorialize. Emphasis on "Otherwise please use the original title". I think dang is wonderful and we're lucky to have him, but even in my short year or two here, I've seen enough instances of title-policing (not necessarily from him) that discourage me not just from changing titles but sometimes from posting things altogether if the title isn't good enough originally.

mortenjorck 3y ago

The rule is officially "don't editorialize" which I would interpret (perhaps incorrectly) as allowing a little leeway in surfacing a buried lede so long as it's presented in neutral language. Something like "Amazing Llama 2 7B performance on M2 Ultra" would obviously fail that test, but the current title of "M2 Ultra can run 128 streams of Llama 2 7B in parallel" seems to follow the spirit of the rule, at least as I read it.

solardev 3y ago
I think the guidelines[1] say not just "don't editorialize", but (emphasis added): > Otherwise please use the original title, unless it is misleading or linkbait; don't editorialize. [1] https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html
- mtillman 3y ago
  Except the original title in my experience is always longer than they allow.

latexr 3y ago

> I really hate the "no changing titles" rule. That’s not the rule. https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html It allows for plenty of leeway, and in my experience alternative titles are accepted and will stand unless they are significantly worse than the original. It happens even with major announcements with hundreds of votes. @dang isn’t some mindless robot who must always enforce one way of doing things. The instructions are, as the page title suggests, guidelines.

solardev 3y ago
It specifically says... > If the title includes the name of the site, please take it out, because the site name will be displayed after the link. > If the title contains a gratuitous number or number + adjective, we'd appreciate it if you'd crop it. E.g. translate "10 Ways To Do X" to "How To Do X," and "14 Amazing Ys" to "Ys." Exception: when the number is meaningful, e.g. "The 5 Platonic Solids." > Otherwise please use the original title, unless it is misleading or linkbait; don't editorialize. Emphasis on "Otherwise please use the original title". I think dang is wonderful and we're lucky to have him, but even in my short year or two here, I've seen enough instances of title-policing (not necessarily from him) that discourage me not just from changing titles but sometimes from posting things altogether if the title isn't good enough originally.