undefined | Better HN

0 pointskareemm11y ago0 comments

My question is why mods change some headlines away from the originals to be more descriptive (good) and why they change back to the originals even though they are less descriptive (bad).

FWIW the change to this headline seems like the right decision to me.

0 comments

dang11y ago

The guideline is to use the original title unless it is misleading or linkbait [1]. It's astonishing how often that qualifier gets dropped from these discussions. It's pretty critical, and makes the reason for most title changes pretty obvious.

1. https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html

kareemmOP11y ago

Thanks for the response. I'd humbly submit that there are occasions where the guidelines should be ignored in service of a more descriptive (non-linkbaity) title.

I can't find the submission but one recent example that comes to mind is a presentation on radar detectors that was fascinating. I clicked because the submitter described the article; the original title was (IIRC) the model number of the radar gun.

Later a mod changed the HN post back to the model number, which had zero relevance to anybody not in the radar gun industry.

j / k navigate · click thread line to collapse