A specific problem I see a lot on HN is blog post titles that do not make sense out of context. Titles like "Thoughts on music" or "An update on performance" might make sense if I'm reading on your site, but it gives no incentive to click through in the first place. This problem is exacerbated by HN's recent zero tolerance policy for headline changes.

Don't worry, even if you pick a good title a HN mod will come and change it to whatever they fancy.

Well when you think about it pragmatically, I don't have the time - and I'm sure you don't either - to look at every single intellectually stimulating title on the internet. And frankly, when I'm browsing HN, I'm not exactly looking for the epitome of academic integrity. I'm looking for things that I'm interested in, and that I care about. And frankly, portscanning /0 is not something that I care about very often. Researchers setting up illegal botnets are.

Copy matters.

Titles matter.

The exponential suppression of new articles is deliberately harsh. The first few early upvotes are critical. Getting them early and often requires either the right hook or a voting ring.

Copy matters in the real world too.

Yes. For an excellent introduction to writing copy, I highly recommend everything on www.copyhackers.com

In general articles from The Register are i) awful, ii) given link-bait headlines, and iii) available elsewhere.

The HN guideline about linking to the original source would be lovely if it meant people stopped linking to the Reg.

Probably to save the article for later reading.