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Comment by dang | Hacker News Reader

[stub for offtopicness]

The slight pause as your brain parses this headline really shows why it makes no sense to have capitalization like this in headlines. It just adds ambiguity.

Yup. I read the title couple times before realizing it probably wasnt about Darleks.

> Darleks

Something interesting about the actors’ accents is it always sounds like it would be spelled this way. It’s actually Dalek, pronounced in a way that is nearly indistinguishable from a British person saying Darlek. (I also notice the auto-correct on my phone knows the difference, which I did not think about until I saw it.)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dalek

That actor undoubtedly calls Canada ''Can-a-der'', as some Brits unfortunately do. Likewise with the Nigerian-British singer Sade (pronounced Shah-day) being called "Shar-day".

> Nigerian-British singer Sade

And I here was sure that the name was French, like the dude who had sadism named after him.

And there are much worse examples too. But maybe that's the idea, write a horrible title that makes readers pause.

It's not the capitalisation it's the clickbait

It would definitely be the capitalisation for people who are familiar with British sci-fi.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doctor_Who

My mind went to some horrible production accident. The first episode aired only 24 yeas after asbestos snow, after all.

While we’re riffing on the headline:

- I must be one of the few people who did not find it ambiguous.

- I am likely among fewer who don’t mind it being “clickbaity”. I probably wouldn’t have cared to know what an Australian did to learn about ulcers otherwise.

But good to know if the time arises to chronicle the absurdities of modern science.

Yeah, I re-read the headline a couple times after seeing the comments and can't spot the ambiguity. Also, there's a difference between 'attention grabbing' and 'clickbait'. This headline seems like the first. It's literally highlighting one of the most interesting parts of the story and precisely describing it.

(Yes, I know the doctor in the article already believed he knew the answer)

Had a fun time parsing the title as unrelated to The Doctor at first

I am grateful for doctors like them, and for the results they bring, even if the methods can be discussed.

Yeah I thought it was about a Matt Smith, 11th doctor recap, the word broth sounds vaguely mystical.

Did not include David Tennant

Why are all those words capitalised?

> Why are all those words capitalised?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Title_case

Not noted there, but I think use in headlines is restricted to the US (?). This does illustrate the problem with over use.

It's fairly common in presentations for the heading an a page, maybe in particular. But I do tend to avoid it personally.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Letter_case#Sentence_case

I am unreasonably sad that the wikipedia editors couldn't find it in themselves to let this one article break wikipedia's URL capitalization rules.

That reminds me of the debate surrounding Star Trek Into/into Darkness https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia_Star_Trek_Into_Darkn...

Other acceptable answers are "Christopher Eccleston" and "Tom Baker".

Anyone else thought from the title alone that this was gonna be about Louis Pasteur and the swan neck flask experiment?

‹mutters something about a blue box›

There have been many doctors.

But The Doctor Who, there’s only one of those. Oh. Wait.

Headlines like this should not be capitalized. The ambiguity is unnecessary.

Click bait headline.

OP here: I agree, actually - unfortunately due to HN title length limitations, I had to cut something out, and I chose to cut out the "gave himself an ulcer" bit. I tried to mitigate it by posting a TL;DR as the first comment :)

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