Ask HN: What can the Point/Comment ratio tell you about the type of story it is?

11 pointsfiliwickers2 comments

I did a quick search and found nothing, anyone?

Basically I am wondering what information can be gathered from the number of points/comments, and the relationship between the two. It would really awesome if it was a function of time too.

View on HN

Unscientifically, posts with (almost) no comments are typically very technical (you need lots of background to comment intelligently); posts with tons of comments are typically very political or rant-y (because everyone is an expert on the US national debt.)

If this is not the answer you were looking for, clarify your question or do some analysis yourself.

Especially posts that are both technical and lack a particular "angle", I think. Technical posts that reach a strong conclusion still often end up with discussion, even if they're very detailed, but technical posts that are just a broad overview of a subject tend not to, because it's not clear where the discussion should jump off from. E.g. a detailed technical argument claiming that the actor-concurrency model is broken (or superior to an alternative) will garner a lot more discussion than just a detailed overview of the actor-concurrency model that reaches no specific conclusions about it.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com