4 ms·
Does HN automatically change the title of post without human intervention?
I am aware that HN mods sometimes change the title of posts. This has been discussed previously:
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37646179
However, my question is not about mods changing title or some automation removing numbers from titles or adding things like [pdf], [video] etc.
My question is about the title being instantly automatically changed upon submission.
For example, I made the below post:
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45234649
The title I submitted was the same title in the article:
> Dinosaur egg dated directly for the first time
However, when the post got submitted, it had a different title:
> Dinosaur Egg Dated Directly
I feel like the "for the first time" is important part of the title which was removed.
Since the title had instantly changed upon submission, it was not mods who changed it.
Note that the HN guidelines say "Otherwise please use the original title, unless it is misleading or linkbait; don't editorialize."
So, why and how are the titles changed automatically?
- toomuchtodo 1y agoThere is underlying code logic that makes changes to make the title more clear, concise, less baity, etc, and mods may also make changes based on their discretion. When mods make changes, they sometimes comment to document so in the thread. If you believe an automatic title edit removed relevant context, you can edit the title to update it accordingly (with the caveat being mods may make changes at any time). See https://github.com/minimaxir/hacker-news-undocumented?tab=readme-ov-file#editdelete-time-limits https://github.com/minimaxir/hacker-news-undocumented?tab=re... for more details
- busymom0 1y agoIs the underlying code logic using AI to rewrite it?
- toomuchtodo 1y agoNot to my knowledge. Only the mod team can speak authoritatively to this though.
- Bender 1y agoNo AI and FWIW one can edit their title and return it to unmodified state if the modified state breaks the title. The reason I doubt any AI is being used is this logic has been in place for a very long time and the results are predictable and near instantanious.
- busymom0 1y agoI feel like removal of "for the first time" using if/then/else statements in code would be pretty hard. Hence wondering if AI has been added to the mix.
- Bender 1y agoThe original code is linked somewhere under here [1] I think. There appears to be something wrong with PG's server. The changes in the live version are mostly operational related. I will keep looking. Either way I am certain this logic is all in Arc. HN is very self contained and running on one active and one standby BSD server. [Edit] My bookmarks are failing me but here [2] is an older thread. [1] - https://www.paulgraham.com/arc.html https://www.paulgraham.com/arc.html [2] - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=28155134 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=28155134
- rolph 1y agoperennial problems are auto culled, new variations are manually, moderated
- PaulHoule 1y agoThere are a number of things that to be based on dang's pet peeves, for instance How X -> X