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Comment by morgante | Hacker News Reader

Thanks for the feedback!

I actually definitely agree with you: that pull quote in particular added no value and I've removed it.

We've had this debate internally (I'm personally not a fan of pull quotes), but a lot of writers like them for the ability to highlight key points and to break up the stories.

Would it maybe be helpful if we didn't make the pull quotes full width? Or required that they be shorter?

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I find them annoying because I naturally "have" to read them. So I wind up reading the same-ish paragraph twice (intended?).

It doesn't help that because of the size and margin you actually need to scroll past it rather than it being a more subtle part of the text.

Something like this:

https://blogs.adobe.com/cantrell/files/2012/07/pullquote_reg...

Likely wouldn't bug me because it is impossible (given the context) to assume you're meant to read it. Whereas when you stick it inline but make it bigger it could be either read or not read depending on the author's intent.

This too looks better:

https://www.drupal.org/files/images/better-pullquote-example...

Not inline also and easy to ignore (which might be "bad" depending on the intent of the pull quotes).

They made it like that for the mobile readers obviously. Ideally you'd want responsive design so it doesn't need to stay full width even on wide computer/tablet screens, but if you can't do that then you have to give priority to the iPhones. For some reason.

If I remember the old newspaper days correctly, pull quotes and boxes were used to enhance context via additional quotes, facts or summaries instead of repeating the content that's already in the article. The other reason for having them was to make a longer piece more scannable, which doesn't work as well when you have to scroll.

At least none of your pull quotes came before they are actual quoted in the article. I too hate pull quotes (I already ready it once! :) ) but there is a special place in hell for writers that write like reality TV shows ("Coming up on....", "Previously on..." on either side of commercial breaks). Great article by the way!

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