Hacker News Reader

Comment by Sharlin | Hacker News Reader

There's nothing inherently better about the edited version. It's just saying the same thing with synonyms substituted, at a slightly more formal but less personal register. HN comments are not academic text, colloquial turns of phrase are perfectly fine and expected.

View on HN

> There's nothing inherently better about the edited version.

Easier to read ==> More likely to be read.

No, it's not saying the same thing, especially if the tool is telling you that your statement is ambiguous and should be rephrased.

More formal register doesn’t mean easier to read or understand. To many people the exact opposite is the case.

> More formal register doesn’t mean easier to read or understand.

And who is advocating for a more formal register?

Easier to read is mostly related with predictability of the text. Any time the brain mispredicts the next word, you'd have to go back and re-read.

Unless you are purposely train on that specific way to expression, it ain't easier to read.

I don't know why this is confusing. If I forget to put the "not" qualifier in a sentence, do we agree that it can confuse (or worse, mislead) the reader?

I never said - confusing. Just not easier to read as in relative term.

I don't think the edited version is easier to read.

I'll ask the same question I asked someone else:

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47342324

You're saying removing ambiguity does not make it easier to read? You're saying using a word that means nothing like what you meant to say is easier to read than using the correct word?

Really?

What are you referring to? What word did the GP use that means nothing like what they meant to say?

OK. My brain farted, and I misunderstood the top post to be saying something else, and your and others' criticisms were misinterpreted by me.

Now here's the thing. I wrote all my prior comments on a machine with no LLM access. On my personal machine, I had a while ago installed a TamperMonkey script that sends my draft, along with all the parents (to the root) to an LLM for feedback (with a specific prompt). All it does is give feedback (logical errors, etc). So I tried again with one of my comments, and its feedback found several flaws with my comment, and ended it with this suggestion:

"Considering all this, it might be BETTER to either not reply ..."

Had I had this advice when I was writing those comments, it would have saved me and others a fair amount of time.

This is (mildly) useful. It'd be sad to ban such use.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com