Hacker News front page now, but the titles are honest • Hacker News Board

Re: Hacker News front page now, but the titles are honest

#41

Post by barfoure » Fri, Dec 19, 2025, 3:48 PM UTC

Yup. And if you dared to bring this up in the comments (ie. your own rewrite of a title/post), you’d get reminded of the guidelines and downvoted/flagged. Because fuck honesty - we are here for clicks and engagements.

This is a good step. Next: disclose financial incentives and other motives just to nip it in the bud.

Re: Hacker News front page now, but the titles are honest

#42

Post by bombledmonk » Fri, Dec 19, 2025, 3:48 PM UTC

This should be the April Fools 2026 feature put directly on the live HN site.

Re: Hacker News front page now, but the titles are honest

#43

Post by nine_k » Fri, Dec 19, 2025, 3:49 PM UTC

This is not "honest", this is mostly just dismissive. The headings are no more neutral and explanatory than the originals, because, I suppose, the intent was just having fun.

"We rewrote it in snark so you have to upvote".

Re: Hacker News front page now, but the titles are honest

#44

Post by clamprecht » Fri, Dec 19, 2025, 3:50 PM UTC

JaggerJo wrote: post #15

Should be the default!

I'd love it if the mouseover text would be these titles.

Re: Hacker News front page now, but the titles are honest

#45

Post by ok123456 » Fri, Dec 19, 2025, 3:50 PM UTC

nine_k wrote: post #43

This is not "honest", this is mostly just dismissive. The headings are no more neutral and explanatory than the originals, because, I suppose, the intent was just having fun. "We rewrote it in snark so you have to upvote".

Is it wrong, though?

Re: Hacker News front page now, but the titles are honest

#46

Post by floatrock » Fri, Dec 19, 2025, 3:50 PM UTC

lapcat wrote: post #24

How much of this navel-gazing junk do we need? See also, from the same author: Show HN: Gemini Pro 3 imagines the HN front page 10 years from now https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46205632 (10 days ago) Show HN: Hacker News, but every headline is hysterical clickbait https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46324579 (4 hours ago)

I dunno, sounds like "rapid product iteration to find product-market fit" to me.

Re: Hacker News front page now, but the titles are honest

#47

Post by daft_pink » Fri, Dec 19, 2025, 3:50 PM UTC

It would be a really interesting feature to have ai analyze the articles and write an actually honest sub-headline. (ie not these sarcastic humor titles)

Re: Hacker News front page now, but the titles are honest

#48

Post by barfoure » Fri, Dec 19, 2025, 3:51 PM UTC

nine_k wrote: post #43

This is not "honest", this is mostly just dismissive. The headings are no more neutral and explanatory than the originals, because, I suppose, the intent was just having fun. "We rewrote it in snark so you have to upvote".

It’s a Fark.com style applied to HN. Maybe we should do a SomethingAwful theme next?

Re: Hacker News front page now, but the titles are honest

#49

Post by ok123456 » Fri, Dec 19, 2025, 3:51 PM UTC

phoe-krk wrote: post #29

lapcat wrote: post #24

How much of this navel-gazing junk do we need? See also, from the same author: Show HN: Gemini Pro 3 imagines the HN front page 10 years from now https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46205632 (10 days ago) Show HN: Hacker News, but every headline is hysterical clickbait https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46324579 (4 hours ago)

Maybe HN needs some reflection, and satire is one of the best ways to provide it.

There hasn't been since n-gate stopped posting.

Re: Hacker News front page now, but the titles are honest

#50

Post by topaz0 » Fri, Dec 19, 2025, 3:51 PM UTC

phoe-krk wrote: post #29

lapcat wrote: post #24

How much of this navel-gazing junk do we need? See also, from the same author: Show HN: Gemini Pro 3 imagines the HN front page 10 years from now https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46205632 (10 days ago) Show HN: Hacker News, but every headline is hysterical clickbait https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46324579 (4 hours ago)

Maybe HN needs some reflection, and satire is one of the best ways to provide it.

And slop is one of the worst ways