Hacker News Reader

Comment by jlgaddis | Hacker News Reader

I know the guidelines on submission titles but this is a good example of how one (missing/removed) word completely changes the entire meaning.

Perhaps the "How" should be added back in?

Edit: The title has been changed. Originally, it was "NASA and ISRO discovered water on the Moon".

View on HN

The "How" prefix was likely removed automatically during submission. dang has confirmed there is a list of suffixes and prefixes that this happens with, but it is not public what they are.

Edit: when I posted this the title was "NASA and ISRO discovered water on the Moon"

I'm fairly certain the word "quietly" is automatically removed from submission titles.

i.e. "Apple quietly drops case against X" => "Apple drops case against X"

However, I do think "quietly" provides extra context - it indicates Apple (in this fictitious scenario) did not issue an official statement on what they did or why; a 3rd party just happened to notice by reviewing public legal documents.

It provides context but also emphasizes a particular perspective, that the subject "should have" or maybe "would have been expected to" announce what they were doing more prominently.

The whole question of what is or is not news necessarily takes a certain perspective, though, so I guess this is always going to be a gray area.

It also implies a nefariousness that might not be appropriate.

That's true but given that HN (via dang and the rules) often states that it's supposed to be a more highbrow forum I think the subtleties of the title should be left to the author of the submission.

Yes, the the prefix was removed automatically even though my submission title was "The story of how NASA and ISRO discovered water on the Moon." Big difference indeed.

This is an interesting case where removing the word "How" makes the title more clickbaity rather than less!

In one case, it's an article about an amazing new discovery, in another case it's an explanation about the method of something we already know.

In this case, it makes a dramatic difference.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com