Ask HN: Is it wrong to read the comments first?

Absolutely. Unless the title really grabs me, I will gauge the quality of the article by a quick look through the comments.

I always click the comments link first. If the first set of comments look interesting, I'll read the article, the come back to the comments and read those.

I probably read 60% of the articles after skimming the comments.

That's like asking if it's wrong to eat your pizza crust first. Some people will claim sacrilege, others may nod in agreement while they wipe pizza sauce from their face.

Either way, you can't go wrong.

I often do this when its a link baity article title e.g. like "OO sucks, and this is why ..." or similar

Sometimes i dont even read the article at all.

I think the best comments are the ones where someone just pastes the "important" bit.

Just don't comment before reading the article or this place will turn into slashdot.