HN: please don't change headlines/titles for linked articles on HN | Hacker News Reader

HN: please don't change headlines/titles for linked articles on HN

12 pointsradley15 comments

Re: Verizon kills the SMS market singlehandedly (mobileindustryreview.com)

Just a reminder. Have some respect for:

a) the entity who took time to write the article

b) those of us who read the article already under the "real" title and don't care to read it again

c) you and/or Hacker News as an informative and accurate source, instead of reactionary or misleading

thnx =)

View on HN

You are right in thinking that we should not editorialise when we post a link to HN but sometimes (just sometimes) the original title just fails to reflect the nature of the item and is downright discouraging to any potential browser.

OK - we are all enjoined to post only that which is worthy and interesting to our fellows but with the volume of posts increasing there is a subtle divergence in (not quality - but content subjects perhaps) that occasionally needs a small title change to ensure that the subject is clarified.

Agreed, and also it's worth mentioning that the author of the article isn't the person who chooses the title unless it's a blog post. The title the editor picks is chosen to fill up the amount of empty space available, usually after reading only the first couple paragraphs. If the title doesn't reflect what makes the story interesting or compelling, then by all means change it. This is especially true for sources like Wired that like to pick some cutesy title that has nothing to do with the article; in these cases just grab the bold text or the topic sentence and use that as either a title or subtitle.

The problem with the original poster's suggestion is that the original headline was written to be seen in context. Usually this means that it is accompanied bny full text that can be seen at a glance, sometimes it means that it is seen with a brief summary.

HN is splendid, but as a noob, I find myself grinding my teeth that I have to click on every single damn link to see what the story is actually about. I mean "Tim O'Reilly to software developers: get serious" what's that actually about? Anything worth my time? who knows.

I agree... please edit my titles so it looks like I can form complete sentences.

I disagree. People might submit articles where the interest for us might be different than what is presented in the title.

Further, HN is not just a news aggregator, there's a significant community component. I have no problem if people inject some opinion into their submissions. If you disagree with their characterization, then discuss it in the comments.

or perhaps, leave your opinion out of the title and include it as comment #1. I often read the comments first to identify why I should or should not click-thru to the story itself.

This should go under feature requests. instead, i think the title attribute should be used for the original title of the page that is linked to.

The subtitle or first sentence of the teaser often makes for a more descriptive title with less spin.

I often find myself needing to prefix a blog title or author name, and sometimes truncate ones that are too verbose. I think if people are careful not to change the meaning of the title, then it is generally OK. My edits are to make the meaning even more clear.

I'm curious, why do you find yourself needing to add the title of the blog or the name of the author? The url already shows us where the post is coming from.

I've done it at times when a third party does an interview with a known author.

I agree that editorialized titles often distort more than help. However, I welcome neutral additions to (short or artsy) titles that provide some context or clarification.

Can the headlines just be grabbed from the documents title tag? It might need some scrubbing, but screenscraping might provide better results.

Fair cop. Would it be possible to have the relevant rules presented to us in the submission form? I sometimes forget.

I submitted this with a funnier headline.

/we don't want this to be Fark Geek.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com