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Despite a policy of "use original titles", the HN software automatically mangles titles. This is one of the more bizarre auto-editing of titles it does because
by xnorswap 3y ago
Despite a policy of "use original titles", the HN software automatically mangles titles.
This is one of the more bizarre auto-editing of titles it does because of how pointless it feels.
"The man who" is established English convention. "A man who" is changing the meaning for the sake of it without producing a clearer title. The person is unambiguously defined, so the definitive article is entirely correct. If the person isn't one of a set of people to whom the description could apply, it makes no sense to use the indefinite article. If a title was, "The man who starts every day with steak and chips" then switching to, "A man who starts every day with steak and chips" feels correct, he almost surely is not alone in doing so.
In contrast, "A man who coined the word Robot", is not correct, it alters the meaning to suggest that someone else could also have coined the word.
HN also removes "How" from the start of titles which often destroys meaning too. That is explained as trying to "reduce clickbait" titles, but the effect is often to make the title nonsensical.
It's one of the many contradictions about this place.
I feels as if whoever set up this system hasn't truly understood the meaning that "The man who" conveys, and has attempted to force a version they see as "more correct" despite it producing nonsense.
- jojojaf 3y agoI say go the Slavic route and lose all the articles; "Man who coined word 'Robot' defends himself" Fits with the 'robot' theme
- Y_Y 3y agoMan coins "robot", defends self
- Almondsetat 3y ago"robot" man self defends
- robertlagrant 3y agoDefensive "robot" coiner.
- pvg 3y agogo the Slavic route полека, лампата!
- arrowsmith 3y agoLooks like it doesn't change all titles that start with "the", see e.g. these two from the current front page: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=39066795 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=39066795 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=39082552 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=39082552 So it only changes "the man" to "a man"? (And I'm guessing also "the woman" to "a woman"?) I'm struggling to understand the reasoning here. Can someone give me an example of a title starting with "the man" which sounds excessively clickbaity, but "a man" fixes it? I can't think of one. Now I'm wondering what other auto-editing rules HN applies. Is there a list somewhere?
- j4yav 3y agoSometimes a human also fixes them afterwards.
- dumbo-octopus 3y agohttps://www.rollingstone.com/feature/up-in-the-air-meet-the-man-who-flies-around-the-world-for-free-43961/ https://www.rollingstone.com/feature/up-in-the-air-meet-the-... > Up in the Air: Meet the Man Who Flies Around the World for Free > Meet the Man Who Flies Around the World for Free > The Man Who Flies Around the World for Free > A Man Who Flies Around the World for Free https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9916974 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9916974
- networked 3y agoYou can edit the title of "a" submission when this happens. My experience is that, if a moderator hasn't touched it, the title of a story remains editable throughout the edit window of the first two hours. It doesn't matter what automatic changes were applied to the title on submission; they are not reapplied when you edit. I restore the original title if HN's software changes it poorly. When I look at /newest or even the front page, it seems few submitters do. Either they are unaware of the possibility, or they think it isn't allowed. (AFAICT, it is allowed as long as you don't use it to break the guidelines. Here is a recent comment by dang saying you can do it: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38993985 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38993985.)
- Danieru 3y agoIMHO, the "The" and "How" handling were smart decisions back during the digg era. Over time those features of clickbait have become defocused. Removing The and How handling might make sense now.
- FearNotDaniel 3y ago> If the person isn't one of a set of people to whom the description could apply, it makes no sense to use the indefinite article. > he’s the guy who (along with his brother Josef) invented the word “robot.” Just to be superly, unnecessarily pedantic: in this case the person is one of a set of people, so although I don't agree with the title being rewritten, it does actually make sense.
- stcredzero 3y agoThis is one of the more bizarre auto-editing of titles it does because of how pointless it feels. Someone should take a page from "Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep" and create an AutoGPT "replicant" version of HN, including LLM versions of the moderators, PG, and the top commenters and submitters.
- neuromanser 3y agoOf course, in light of Betteridge's law, that version would be called Androids Don't Dream of Electric Sheep.