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Comment by behnamoh | Hacker News Reader

Is it necessary to mention which university the person is from? I have the same reaction when news titles say things like "34 yo woman discovers blah blah blah" or "Spanish scientists found that ...". No one cares about the meta data of these people, let's get to the point and hear what they did.

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> Is it necessary to mention which university the person is from?

This is such a strange statement. He leads a team at The University of Alabama which has been given a grant by the National Science Foundation. He is not a sole inventor working by his own funding in his private time. The University of Alabama has also filed a patent application - so why wouldn't any news article mention the university ?

At least it’s a less known school. Usually they mention only the big names like “Stanford scientists…”. When it’s a lesser known school it’s just “Scientists….”

UA is not really lesser known.

UA is elite

Yes, it is necessary. They funded the research and deserve the credit.

"Tax payers of the United States..."

Likely tax payers of Alabama, I don’t see federal funding but might be missing it:

https://afr.ua.edu/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/UA-AFR-FY23.pd...

I’d imagine the taxpayers are happy with the recognition via the university.

I was just speaking generally about funding for research.

I don't follow the logic that taxpayers would be happy with the university getting credit. I'm a tax payer, and I'd much rather the researcher get credit.

This article is from the school's PR dept

Would you have a problem if it said "OpenAI develops novel LLM to solve math problems" rather than "Novel LLM solves math problems" too?

Exactly. +100

Yes, it's the same to me. Let's talk about ideas instead of people/companies.

Well I think it is important. With the vast amount of knowledge that is being created every day we have to filter much of it out. If that university has made a reputation as a leader of knowledge acquisition and known for well run labs and procedures then they earn that reputation. The author of the story might just get more eyes on the story if people think it will contain good knowledge from a reputable source.

This is a pretty sad and cynical way to live life. Also, your point isn't even very good. It is useful to know where research is coming from; it's hardly the same as the strawman example of "34 yo woman discovers blah blah blah". Also, this ridiculous notion that "No one cares about the 'meta data'" is silly. Actual academics are interested in the names of the venue of publication as well as the institutions of the researchers involved; is it the primary thing that matters? No, but its pretty weird to be upset about such a minor thing. Though, I'm not surprised to see this kind of comment on HN.

For how long did reading those three words delay you from getting to the point?

How do you justify the leap from you not caring to "no one cares"?

In fairness, this is a self-promoting (biased) University blog. Without the parent's critique, I suspect most would gloss over this.

The party reporting the information calling attention to the fact that it's reporting on its own institution by putting the name of that institution in the headline creates that awareness.

That doesn't make sense at all.

Plenty of examples where that generalization isn't true.

OP also edited the title (which is frowned upon at HN). The article abbreviated UA.

I mean it's from the University of Alabama news site, hyping a University of Alabama lab. I'd assume it's serving a marketing/"school spirit" sorta purpose as well as sharing the news.

Yes. OP basically linked a PR.

As a 34 yo spanish woman scientist, I take great offense at your dismissal of qualifications.

yes

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