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If threads can usually be summarized in a way that most people think is useful, that's an interesting question. I'm thinking it varies from discussion to discus

If threads can usually be summarized in a way that most people think is useful, that's an interesting question. I'm thinking it varies from discussion to discussion and thread to thread. — Hmm, one area where summaries seem impossible, is jokes. Well unless one summarizes the thread with "A joke and funny replies". Threads cannot be summarized? But I think I can summarize this thread?: "A suggestion to summarize threads, and a discussion about if this is doable and useful." :-) Couldn't that summary potentially save time, help people to know if they want to read this thread or not?

krapp 12y ago
You've just described the function of the title, though, as the subject of the thread, which only has (as of now) a couple of rather short subthreads. It might not be that easy if you're talking about a 100+ comment thread, with various tangents, each of which might be interesting in their own way. What if the content you want is not directly related to the subject at hand? The longer a thread becomes (particularly using a threaded format like HN does) the more divergent the subthreads become.
- KajMagnus 12y ago
  Did you mean that my summary was a title, not a summary? I didn't quite understand "described the function of the title". Right now I'm thinking only poorly written comments and off-topic threads would benefit from being summarized. A good comment starts with attracting attention and interest, and a summary would destroy that. A poorly written comment though, it might be verbose and chatty, and it might make the discussion stray off-topic. Then, instead of just collapsing a not-so-popular off-topic thread and showing the text "Click to view 33 comments", one could show a summary: "Click to view a suggestion to summarize threads and a discussion about if doing so makes sense (33 comments)". Or "Click to view a joke (5 comments)". (I agree this is getting complicated for long threads that branches off in many directions.)
  - krapp 12y ago
    > I didn't quite understand "described the function of the title". Sorry, I meant the purpose of the title was to do what you did - to briefly summarize a post. Since it's your thread, obviously, it would be easy for you to describe your own intent, but it might be much more difficult to do analytically.

krapp 12y ago

You've just described the function of the title, though, as the subject of the thread, which only has (as of now) a couple of rather short subthreads. It might not be that easy if you're talking about a 100+ comment thread, with various tangents, each of which might be interesting in their own way. What if the content you want is not directly related to the subject at hand? The longer a thread becomes (particularly using a threaded format like HN does) the more divergent the subthreads become.

KajMagnus 12y ago
Did you mean that my summary was a title, not a summary? I didn't quite understand "described the function of the title". Right now I'm thinking only poorly written comments and off-topic threads would benefit from being summarized. A good comment starts with attracting attention and interest, and a summary would destroy that. A poorly written comment though, it might be verbose and chatty, and it might make the discussion stray off-topic. Then, instead of just collapsing a not-so-popular off-topic thread and showing the text "Click to view 33 comments", one could show a summary: "Click to view a suggestion to summarize threads and a discussion about if doing so makes sense (33 comments)". Or "Click to view a joke (5 comments)". (I agree this is getting complicated for long threads that branches off in many directions.)
- krapp 12y ago
  > I didn't quite understand "described the function of the title". Sorry, I meant the purpose of the title was to do what you did - to briefly summarize a post. Since it's your thread, obviously, it would be easy for you to describe your own intent, but it might be much more difficult to do analytically.