Not usually, but sometimes I will read part of an article and then look to the comments to see if there is an explanation or discussion of something I didn't understand, before continuing. I would not trust HN comment threads to replace the content of articles: I'm fairly certain there are a lot of people who don't read the articles before commenting on them.
Ask HN: I read comments before the article, do you?
11–20 of 55 posts
Re: Ask HN: I read comments before the article, do you?
#12I never read the articles to be honest. Dead serious.
Re: Ask HN: I read comments before the article, do you?
#13Depends. If I don't understand from the headline what it is all about I check the top comments. If the topic sounds like genuinely interesting technical information I read the article first. And everything between those 2 extremes depending on the phase of the moon...
This. Exactly.
Re: Ask HN: I read comments before the article, do you?
#14I skim the top comments first to try to find out if the article is worth reading.
Re: Ask HN: I read comments before the article, do you?
#159 out 10 times never read the article - comments often shine the light that there is a better X that is open source, or that the thing I wanted when reading the title is Mac or IOS only - save me the click and the time.
I do try to read the article / thing if I am going to comment - but that's not many.
Many times the comments let me know that other needed thing is not released yet - or that no pricing info is published - love those saved clicks.
Re: Ask HN: I read comments before the article, do you?
#16I skim the top comments first to try to find out if the article is worth reading.
Yeah. Too many articles waste too much of my time. They want to make me go down two or three screens before they bother to tell me the interesting part, but the HN comments tend to center on that part.
Re: Ask HN: I read comments before the article, do you?
#17I never read the articles to be honest. Dead serious.
+1, was looking for this. Some of the articles are rewarding, though.
Re: Ask HN: I read comments before the article, do you?
#18I think of the title as more of a conversation topic starter. most threads end up totally derailed.
Re: Ask HN: I read comments before the article, do you?
#19I almost always read the comments before reading the article (and sometimes don't read the article at all).
I do, however, read the article before I write a comment of my own.
Re: Ask HN: I read comments before the article, do you?
#20I write comments before the article