4 ms·
Tell HN: Read the FAQ before submitting
There's an FAQ, with submission guidelines:
http://ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html
The list isn't long, it isn't hard to follow. Yet several recent submissions have managed to ignore even this short list of examples of what not to do.
For instance:
- politics
- titles with "10 great ways to do X", when "ways to do X" is enough
- titles that include the name of the source web site (redundant)
- not using the original source (submitting a duplicate URL automatically forwards you to the original post, so we shouldn't be able to see the same topic 4 times)
My mouse is worn out from all the "flag" clicking. :) Please, be kind to your community, and read the half-page of guidelines.
- tptacek 17y agoIf you're flagging because of inappropriate titles, you're doing it wrong.
- gojomo 17y agoIf flags are only for "spams and really egregious trolling", it would be nice if there were some other way to bring deceptive titles needing admin edits to moderator attention.
- tptacek 17y agoComment, and then let it go.
- makecheck 17y agoI flag the offtopic stuff, or the 4th time I've seen the same story. I do think it would be wrong to flag based on titles, since enough flags would auto-kill (and a story could still be interesting and worthwhile with a lousy title). Besides, there are also editors that change the titles.
- weaksauce 17y agoSince the site is getting popular I think we might need a karma barrier to upvote. Meaning, the newbies would not be able to vote up a story or if they were able to the vote would not count. It would just be saved without pushing it onto the front page. This policy would help attenuate the effects of the people that do not know the rules to the front page. Worth a thought experiment at the very least.
- gruseom 17y agoIt bothers me that I can't sarcastically deride meta-glop without being a hypocrite.
- SnowLprd 17y agoHow about putting a link to the submission guidelines on the Submit form itself? It seems like that might increase the chances that folks would read (and heed) the guidelines.