Thank you. I wish more writers cared about readers time and include TL;DR in first paragraph with more detailed content below
It is a separate skill from writing an engaging narrative that builds up to a dramatic resolution.
It is also a separate skill to know what style is most appropriate for your audience. I think most people casually browsing news on the web would prefer journalistic style to narrative style. But the ones who like narrative might also be willing to pay more for it.
By way of analogy: a journey is in part about arriving at the (or a) destination, but it's also about the journey itself.
Revealing the destination at the beginning, if it is in fact known, does not of necessity detract from the journey. And if an article is in fact about arriving at some conclusion, then, as a courtesy to the reader who is trying to determine how to allocate their own limited attention, providing some indication of where this particular journey ends may prove worthwhile.
On the basis of the discussion here and criticisms of this particular article voiced, I'm about to close this particular HN tab and move on to others that may be vaguely more interesting and/or considerate of my attention.
Two things you don't seem to be considering:
1. Maybe most articles simply don't need to exist. 2. Basic income. Or literally any other way of earning a living.
There is a lot of trash written just to hook eyeballs so I understand your sentiment, but it's very tiring seeing these comments, especially when it's on a story like this that was well written and clearly not the kind of article you are saying it is.
The headline in this case was written to hook your curiosity, but the overall story was meant to explore more then just that answer. While it does answer it's original question, the story is also very much about the history of gorillas in captivity, and how their diets, treatmeant, and original misconceptions keepers had evolved over the years.
edit: originally i was responding to the parent comment asking for TLDR on every article. this is not related to the content of this particular article
It's Good Journalism.
> I wish more writers cared about readers time
I wish more readers would care about the writer's time spent crafting well-rounded, deep and expertly-crafted journalism.
TL;DR and its ethos is why journos feel the need to write for clicks and sensationalize the material.
If you don't have time to read the article, why do you think you deserve attaining its essence?
Would you like your work and toil reduced to a one-liner?
You'd live in a pretty limited (and skewed) world of information if people could only write about personal experience.
Or are you arguing that the writer showed little knowledge of actual gorilla research? You didn't provide any argumentation to support this perspective.
> what right does she have
Could you elaborate on how you got from TL;DRs to freedom of press?
>Just before 8 o’clock on a snowy Wednesday morning, deep in a maze of doors and steel fencing...
Good grief. Just tell us what's happening.