A Theory on Hacker News • Hacker News Board

Re: A Theory on Hacker News

#11

Post by skolor » Wed, Sep 30, 2009, 5:10 PM UTC

alex_c wrote: post #4

jgrahamc wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I started out by reading the sites directly, but the comments here are so good that I frequently go to the comments first and read them. I also tend to not read stories that have been upvoted but received no comments.

Those are often the most though-provoking ones.

I disagree. Frequently the articles which don't have any comments are the ones that either only apply to a niche field or that don't have any particular stance. The only example currently on the front page is something about pubsubhubbub (something I've never heard of, and thus less likely to click on and read), and going to the article it seems to be rather short and a gripe about it not working.

That is not what I would call "thought-provoking" its a post of limited scope which, while it may be interesting to someone who knows about the topic, does not leave much to be discussed.

It is the discussions that bring me to HN and keep me coming back. I frequently don't even read the articles, because I find the commenters here are of a much closer mind-set to myself, and often know as much or more about the subject than the blogger making the post. A heavily commented article is one I am most likely to read, because it means there is likely something I can add to the conversation.

Re: A Theory on Hacker News

#12

Post by jpwagner » Wed, Sep 30, 2009, 5:47 PM UTC

sWeet, it's like HN without the pesky users...

sorry, it's not a terrible idea in another context, but HN is its users.

decent plug for cubbyscott though.

Re: A Theory on Hacker News

#13

Post by mey » Wed, Sep 30, 2009, 6:05 PM UTC

I tend to visit the comments on HN before clicking through to the link. Especially from link bait sounding titles. Depending on the comments reaction, actual discussion vs bashing the article, I'll click through the link.

Re: A Theory on Hacker News

#14

Post by chaosprophet » Wed, Sep 30, 2009, 6:19 PM UTC

A better way to implement this would be to append the comments page of HN to the linked article. Should take very little JS Kung Fu.

Re: A Theory on Hacker News

#15

Post by Quarrelsome » Wed, Sep 30, 2009, 6:22 PM UTC

chaosmachine wrote: post #2

"It's pretty easy to follow user behavior on Hacker News, they click the first link, read the content go back to Hacker News comment if they found the link interesting" I think you're wrong here. I'd wager most people check the comments before reading the link (if there are comments).

Well I must be a weirdo then, I prefer to at the very least glance at the source before seeing opinions on the source. I do check the comments immediately afterwards because some of them are pure gold! :)

Re: A Theory on Hacker News

#16

Post by Davertron » Wed, Sep 30, 2009, 6:35 PM UTC

elblanco wrote: post #10

chaosmachine wrote: post #2

"It's pretty easy to follow user behavior on Hacker News, they click the first link, read the content go back to Hacker News comment if they found the link interesting" I think you're wrong here. I'd wager most people check the comments before reading the link (if there are comments).

In fact, I wish the link in my google gadget went to the comments page first and not the submitted link.

There have been a few people who have created Yahoo pipes which do just that; this is the only link I can seem to come up with, but should do what you want:

http://pipes.yahoo.com/andrewducker/hackernews

Re: A Theory on Hacker News

#17

Post by ianbishop » Wed, Sep 30, 2009, 7:03 PM UTC

I think seeing the top comment, rather than the first x characters of an article, would be far more descriptive of an article.

* Bias articles

* Link bait

* Blog spam

* Click-able links

etc.

Re: A Theory on Hacker News

#18

Post by jrockway » Wed, Sep 30, 2009, 7:26 PM UTC

wmeredith wrote: post #9

The implementation here is nice and I like the GUI, but you might piss off content creators. Scraping the content and displaying it on your own site is worse than the DiggBar.

Yeah, instead of the content rendering in the user's browser, it will render in the user's browser.

Wait, what?

Re: A Theory on Hacker News

#19

Post by rit » Wed, Sep 30, 2009, 7:34 PM UTC

Don't get me wrong - this is really cool, and looks great. But...

The problem I think is that this stagnates Hacker News in many ways. I don't see an easy way from that page to upvote something.

One thing I note is the lack of a downvote makes me actually think about giving a bump to something. But if I am required to click through something 3 or 4 times I'm not going to bother doing so.

Without a clear way for people to upvote articles, but with a simpler interface to see articles, you're going to change the dynamics of articles moving up and down on the actual feed. Which is probably not what you're aiming for...

Re: A Theory on Hacker News

#20

Post by wannabetechgeek » Wed, Sep 30, 2009, 7:37 PM UTC

Quarrelsome wrote: post #15

chaosmachine wrote: post #2

"It's pretty easy to follow user behavior on Hacker News, they click the first link, read the content go back to Hacker News comment if they found the link interesting" I think you're wrong here. I'd wager most people check the comments before reading the link (if there are comments).

Well I must be a weirdo then, I prefer to at the very least glance at the source before seeing opinions on the source. I do check the comments immediately afterwards because some of them are pure gold! :)

You're not alone. I scan the list of top stories, open new tabs in my browser alternating between source and comments, as many as 10 at a time. I always scan the source first for context but, like others here, generally find that the comments are more interesting.