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"How did this even get started?" Well, the Hacker News guidelines[1] say: > Please use the original title, unless it is misleading or linkbait. This rule is

by teach 14y ago

"How did this even get started?" Well, the Hacker News guidelines[1] say: > Please use the original title, unless it is misleading or linkbait. This rule is frequently violated, because a lot of the times the original title is bad. So submitters that are used to reddit re-title the link, sometimes for worse and sometimes for the better. But HN is pretty strict about the title rule, so they get edited back to the original pretty quickly. [1] http://ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html http://ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html

petercooper 14y ago
Weird. They've changed the rules. What you quoted seemed very weird to me since I'd sorta internalized the guidelines and it seems they got edited over the past year. See http://web.archive.org/web/20120222184108/http://ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html http://web.archive.org/web/20120222184108/http://ycombinator... for what they were a year ago. You can make up a new title if you want, but if you put gratuitous editorial spin on it, the editors may rewrite it. It seems that part has been thrown out the window and rewrites are no longer welcome. A shame.
- teach 14y ago
  It is a shame. As it stands now, the system "punishes" rule followers who leave the original, uninteresting title and thereby get no traction. But those who rewrite the title to something more obviously relevant get decent views even if the submission is re-titled later.
  - petercooper 14y ago
    That's why I think the removal of the "you can make up a new title [as long as it's not ridiculous]" rule is bizarre. Now you might as well break the rules to get out of /newest and then confuse everyone once it's on FP and edited back ;-) The sad fact is a lot of people who create great content are really, really bad at titles.
incision 14y ago
Interesting that submitters are actually asked to do a handful of editing work that could probably be automated, but prevented from performing the subjective work of summarizing or restating that a human being is actually suited to. Seems like a rule worth changing to me.

by teach 14y ago

petercooper 14y ago

Weird. They've changed the rules. What you quoted seemed very weird to me since I'd sorta internalized the guidelines and it seems they got edited over the past year. See http://web.archive.org/web/20120222184108/http://ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html http://web.archive.org/web/20120222184108/http://ycombinator... for what they were a year ago. You can make up a new title if you want, but if you put gratuitous editorial spin on it, the editors may rewrite it. It seems that part has been thrown out the window and rewrites are no longer welcome. A shame.

teach 14y ago
It is a shame. As it stands now, the system "punishes" rule followers who leave the original, uninteresting title and thereby get no traction. But those who rewrite the title to something more obviously relevant get decent views even if the submission is re-titled later.
- petercooper 14y ago
  That's why I think the removal of the "you can make up a new title [as long as it's not ridiculous]" rule is bizarre. Now you might as well break the rules to get out of /newest and then confuse everyone once it's on FP and edited back ;-) The sad fact is a lot of people who create great content are really, really bad at titles.

incision 14y ago

Interesting that submitters are actually asked to do a handful of editing work that could probably be automated, but prevented from performing the subjective work of summarizing or restating that a human being is actually suited to. Seems like a rule worth changing to me.