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This is a bit of a nit to pick, but once again, I'm mystified as to why the HN front page mods changed the title of this submission. I had it as: "The Seven De

This is a bit of a nit to pick, but once again, I'm mystified as to why the HN front page mods changed the title of this submission. I had it as: "The Seven Deadly Sins of Talking About Types", which also happens to be the title of the blog post itself, give or take a definite article. What gives?

GeneralMayhem 12y ago
My guess would be it's an application of: >If the original title begins with a number or number + gratuitous adjective, we'd appreciate it if you'd crop it. E.g. translate "10 Ways To Do X" to "How To Do X," and "14 Amazing Ys" to "Ys." Exception: when the number is meaningful, e.g. "The 5 Platonic Solids." https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html
- titanomachy 12y ago
  These guidelines are really strict, but I have to say I like the results in general. I can usually tell by the title if something is likely to contain information that's interesting to me, unlike with many news sites.
- jashkenas 12y ago
  > Exception: when the number is meaningful As it is in this case: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seven_deadly_sins http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seven_deadly_sins If a (some might say, literary) allusion has no place on Hacker News, just because it happens to have a number in it, then the small-minded literalists have really taken over this joint.
  - forthefuture 12y ago
    You don't need to know the seven deadly sins to know anything about types. They could have had 5 or 8 sins having to do with types and the content wouldn't have changed. That's pretty much the definition of unnecessary.
    - tome 12y ago
      It should have been "The sins of talking about types" then.
  - GeneralMayhem 12y ago
    But the content doesn't really relate to the allusion in any way. It's not like the seven sins listed are analogues to gluttony, lust, sloth, etc. There just happen to be seven of them.
stefantalpalaru 12y ago
> What gives? Father knows best.

GeneralMayhem 12y ago

My guess would be it's an application of: >If the original title begins with a number or number + gratuitous adjective, we'd appreciate it if you'd crop it. E.g. translate "10 Ways To Do X" to "How To Do X," and "14 Amazing Ys" to "Ys." Exception: when the number is meaningful, e.g. "The 5 Platonic Solids." https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html

titanomachy 12y ago
These guidelines are really strict, but I have to say I like the results in general. I can usually tell by the title if something is likely to contain information that's interesting to me, unlike with many news sites.
jashkenas 12y ago
> Exception: when the number is meaningful As it is in this case: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seven_deadly_sins http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seven_deadly_sins If a (some might say, literary) allusion has no place on Hacker News, just because it happens to have a number in it, then the small-minded literalists have really taken over this joint.
- forthefuture 12y ago
  You don't need to know the seven deadly sins to know anything about types. They could have had 5 or 8 sins having to do with types and the content wouldn't have changed. That's pretty much the definition of unnecessary.
  - tome 12y ago
    It should have been "The sins of talking about types" then.
- GeneralMayhem 12y ago
  But the content doesn't really relate to the allusion in any way. It's not like the seven sins listed are analogues to gluttony, lust, sloth, etc. There just happen to be seven of them.

stefantalpalaru 12y ago

> What gives? Father knows best.