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Comment by curiousgal | Hacker News Reader

Are we supposed to know who Ayende is? Please change the title.

I don't know who he is but I can't think of a more clear title to convey that it's not a repost and also leave the namespace open for other people to make similar posts (changing it to the post title "re: <title>" doesn't convey any extra information)

For people who do not know who Ayende is, the presence or absence of his name in the title provides no additional information. For people who do know that he is an experienced and talented database developer, his name in the title is likely to make them want to read the article more. Therefore, removing his name from the title is a net loss as it eliminates information that is useful for the many people who know who Ayende is while doing nothing for people who do not know who Ayende is.

Almost everybody in the .NET community knows who he is.

I agree with @dev360. I think it has to do with RavenDB being more common with .NET developers (at least from my experience).

Hm, isn't RavenDB a .NET solution? As such how could it not be "more common with .NET developers"?

RavenDB is just a server application. There's nothing stopping you from connecting to it via, say, Python.

It's just much more commonly used in .NET apps.

The original client was written in C# but I believe there is Java and JavaScript clients now. Also can be queried via http requests.

Then count me in the category that requires you to use the qualifier "almost". I've been working in .NET since it was invented and I've never heard of him.

I think the title was to differentiate from the actual Uber post regarding the switch.

The title would've been fine without the name drop, which would also make the title equal to the linked article's title.

I think "Ayende" should be in the title somewhere not because of any Hollywood "name drop" but simply to differentiate it from yesterday's submission. I don't want those 2 submissions to have the exact same title. Yesterday's submission was a blog directly from uber.com. Today's submission is a blog from ayende.com with his own commentary.

Therefore, maybe a reasonable compromise is to put "Ayende" at the end like this:

"Why Uber Engineering Switched from Postgres to MySQL (Ayende's comments)"

I think a quick look to the domain name has the same effect.

I agree the greyed out hard-to-see "(ayende.com)" in parentheses can have the same effect but I assume that everybody's eyes scans the page differently[1]. I'm sure a lot of readers in a hurry would ignore the grey text and would assume it's an exact duplicate of yesterday's post. Having "Ayende" in the title seems like a minor expansion of words to counteract that effect.

From the back & forth comments, I'm getting the vibe that the submitter broke some hidden HN principle??? As if putting a person's name in the title is trying to manipulate the HN readers into hero worship?? Or trying to impress HN readers with Hollywood name dropping?? I read the "Ayende" using a perfectly neutral interpretation but it's obvious others are really turned off by it. I can't see any other reason for the bikeshedding about the title.

[1]https://www.google.com/search?q=eye+tracking+gui&source=lnms...

HN guidelines regarding titles are to include the article's original title if it's not clickbaity or misleading and to omit the website's name from the title because it appears on the domain name next to it. Both guidelines seems to not have been followed.

I agree that OP did it to differentiate this response article from the original one but this was the first time the article was posted on HN so we don't really know if it needed to be differentiated (i.e. if it had been posted without getting to the frontpage then it would've been safe to assume the necessity of a different title).

Either ways I think "A response to" instead of "Ayende on" would've done the same job without risking falling into any of the pitfalls you mentioned. But enough nitpicking, the article in itself is interesting.

That is true, however it assumes that most people read the domain name.

I don't, and I don't know how many do. Do you?

The guidelines state that a website's name should be omitted from the title because the domain name gives that out.

I always check the domain name because I know despite a catchy title, some domains are not worth checking.

Nit: It was not the domain that was included in the title but the authors name, they happen to be the same.

Whilst on reddit and other sites I will check the domain, on HN they are posted so infrequently that I spare myself the strain.

>It was not the domain that was included in the title but the authors name, they happen to be the same.

Yes I understand that that was the intention but let's suppose the process of detecting domain name in the title had been automated. The post would've been flagged.

>on HN they are posted so infrequently

I take it you don't browse HN's newest page, it's full of garbage links.

OP here, yes, that's exactly why I put 'Ayende' in the title, since the original was posted yesterday. If I didn't, I figured people would skip it assuming it was a dupe, or I'd get the usual crowd bleating about it being a dupe without even bothering to read it.

Perhaps you should let the crowd answer the first part of your post before making a demand re: something you know nothing about in the very next sentence?

I didn't know who Ayende is, now I do. Please keep the title.

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