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0 pointsdang3y ago0 comments

We edit the title if the thread is salvageable, but in this case the comments were so skewed by the editorialized title that I just buried the thread.

Titles are by far the biggest influence on discussion so this rule is pretty important. There are borderline cases, but I don't think this was one.

0 comments

bcantrill3y ago

That's a really interesting observation. I was trying to figure out when the tenor of the comments was so hot (especially relative to the two previous times this piece has been discussed on HN), and it didn't occur to me the title may very well have played a role -- but on reading the comments here (and especially, the fixation on the number), that makes a lot of sense. Thanks for burying the thread; there was more heat than light on this one for sure!

dangOP3y ago

> especially, the fixation on the number

Oh yes! - that's a whole other level to this. pg figured that out 15+ years ago*:

If the title contains a gratuitous number or number + 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

Excessive specificity has almost a hypnotic effect on the mind, and group effects compound that.

* not quite - looks like some time between March 2009 (https://web.archive.org/web/20090324091356/http://ycombinato... - no number rule) and July 2009 (https://web.archive.org/web/20090712034454/http://ycombinato... - number rule). Someone should make an Internet Archive binary search service...

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