10 ms·

I'm pretty used to seeing Hacker News posts about something and having absolutely no idea what they are talking about. Based on the way headlines are edited, t

I'm pretty used to seeing Hacker News posts about something and having absolutely no idea what they are talking about. Based on the way headlines are edited, this seems to be on purpose.

chc 14y ago
Since you're probably wondering whence downvotes: You seem to be talking about going into a thread with a confusing headline and not understanding the topic. You're not meant to wade in with nothing more than the headline as a guide. Commenting on a story without reading it is a really annoying practice that leads to some very frustrating discussions. EDIT: Wow, downvoted into the ground for trying to be nice and explain constructively what I disagreed with. I don't mean to complain, but I would like to suggest that readers consider what kind of discourse they'd like to see before blindly downvoting.
- freehunter 14y ago
  Then again (and recognizing you make a good point), there have been plenty of times when I read the site, have no idea what is going on, check the comments for some enlightenment, and feel like I'm the only one who still has no idea what the article is supposed to be about.
- danielweber 14y ago
  5 upvotes came out of nowhere in 30 seconds so I'm not too worried. But I'll point out two examples from just this week where article+headline completely failed. First is Aaron Winburn; I had no idea of why this was on HN until a commenter helpfully pointed out he was a Drupal developer. Second is "Trello is now half-million strong." The headline, nor the article, told me what the heck Trello was. Maybe this is conscious decision on the part of the HN moderators to keep out newbs.
  - chc 14y ago
    > Second is "Trello is now half-million strong." The headline, nor the article, told me what the heck Trello was. How is that a problem in that particular case? This was not an introductory post for Trello. Introducing you to the product was not its purpose. This was an update on the product's blog telling you that Trello now has 500k subscribers. But if you for some reason clicked on the article wanting to know what Trello is, I'm pretty sure they have a link to the actual product right there. Including an introduction to Trello in the article text would have been a waste of most people's time.
Havoc 14y ago
Agreed. In this case I didn't even bother with the link & went straight to the comments. Usually the first few comments point out some flaw of the product __in clear language__ and from that one can work out what the product being criticized is. Much faster than trying to figure out the product from the company's marketing speak.

I'm pretty used to seeing Hacker News posts about something and having absolutely no idea what they are talking about. Based on the way headlines are edited, this seems to be on purpose.

chc 14y ago

Since you're probably wondering whence downvotes: You seem to be talking about going into a thread with a confusing headline and not understanding the topic. You're not meant to wade in with nothing more than the headline as a guide. Commenting on a story without reading it is a really annoying practice that leads to some very frustrating discussions. EDIT: Wow, downvoted into the ground for trying to be nice and explain constructively what I disagreed with. I don't mean to complain, but I would like to suggest that readers consider what kind of discourse they'd like to see before blindly downvoting.

freehunter 14y ago
Then again (and recognizing you make a good point), there have been plenty of times when I read the site, have no idea what is going on, check the comments for some enlightenment, and feel like I'm the only one who still has no idea what the article is supposed to be about.
danielweber 14y ago
5 upvotes came out of nowhere in 30 seconds so I'm not too worried. But I'll point out two examples from just this week where article+headline completely failed. First is Aaron Winburn; I had no idea of why this was on HN until a commenter helpfully pointed out he was a Drupal developer. Second is "Trello is now half-million strong." The headline, nor the article, told me what the heck Trello was. Maybe this is conscious decision on the part of the HN moderators to keep out newbs.
- chc 14y ago
  > Second is "Trello is now half-million strong." The headline, nor the article, told me what the heck Trello was. How is that a problem in that particular case? This was not an introductory post for Trello. Introducing you to the product was not its purpose. This was an update on the product's blog telling you that Trello now has 500k subscribers. But if you for some reason clicked on the article wanting to know what Trello is, I'm pretty sure they have a link to the actual product right there. Including an introduction to Trello in the article text would have been a waste of most people's time.

Havoc 14y ago

Agreed. In this case I didn't even bother with the link & went straight to the comments. Usually the first few comments point out some flaw of the product __in clear language__ and from that one can work out what the product being criticized is. Much faster than trying to figure out the product from the company's marketing speak.