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How to title your blog post or whatever

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Re: How to title your blog post or whatever

#21

Post by dijit »

paulpauper wrote: post #18
dijit wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Agreed, when it comes to writing for hackernews I have had the best results personally when being curious but incomplete. If I try to actually educate someone or do my research fully, either someone will know more than me, and an expert will weigh in to invalidate some section of my posting- or people will pretend to be an expert- and you’ll spend a day trying to discuss why what they’re saying is incorrect. Both wil…

Are you talking about writing in the context of HN comment or submitting links?

I’m talking about writing blog posts and them being submitted to hackernews. :)

Re: How to title your blog post or whatever

#23

Post by aeve890 »

boznz wrote: post #6

Click-bait titles like "All the best programmers know this..", "Breakthrough might make fusion a reality.." or any other type of title that does not give a hint of what the actual thing is are immediately discarded by me regardless of the creator. I actually wish there was a way of blocking these but they are usually the first items I see on YouTube or reddit.. sigh! This title problem is even worse as an author wher…

>I actually wish there was a way of blocking these but they are usually the first items I see on YouTube or reddit.. sigh!

It would be cool something like a llm based link title classifier that hide click-bait links or something like that.

Re: How to title your blog post or whatever

#24

Post by RetroTechie »

paulpauper wrote: post #19
boznz wrote: post #6

Click-bait titles like "All the best programmers know this..", "Breakthrough might make fusion a reality.." or any other type of title that does not give a hint of what the actual thing is are immediately discarded by me regardless of the creator. I actually wish there was a way of blocking these but they are usually the first items I see on YouTube or reddit.. sigh! This title problem is even worse as an author wher…

My belief has been that the title should describe exactly what it is you're writing about. no cleverness

Better: title should capture some core aspect(s) of [thing]. But may do so in a playful manner.

Say eg. some building / construction / architecture article could be titled "square shapes considered harmful". And then discuss architects known for buildings with rounded corners everywhere.

Personally, I don't see "audience likes it" as #1 priority. I prefer to make audience think, learn something, provide a new angle on something, or put out something that didn't exist before. Kind of like a movie that may not have a happy end, but viewers remember for the story, atmosphere, instant classic-potential, etc.

Re: How to title your blog post or whatever

#25

Post by cookingrobot »

aeve890 wrote: post #23
boznz wrote: post #6

Click-bait titles like "All the best programmers know this..", "Breakthrough might make fusion a reality.." or any other type of title that does not give a hint of what the actual thing is are immediately discarded by me regardless of the creator. I actually wish there was a way of blocking these but they are usually the first items I see on YouTube or reddit.. sigh! This title problem is even worse as an author wher…

>I actually wish there was a way of blocking these but they are usually the first items I see on YouTube or reddit.. sigh! It would be cool something like a llm based link title classifier that hide click-bait links or something like that.

Or it could read the article and rewrite the title to make the point clear.

And give a score based on how interesting it will likely be to you.

Re: How to title your blog post or whatever

#26

Post by aspenmayer »

boznz wrote: post #6

Click-bait titles like "All the best programmers know this..", "Breakthrough might make fusion a reality.." or any other type of title that does not give a hint of what the actual thing is are immediately discarded by me regardless of the creator. I actually wish there was a way of blocking these but they are usually the first items I see on YouTube or reddit.. sigh! This title problem is even worse as an author wher…

There’s an open source crowdsourced solution for clickbait titles and thumbnails for YouTube, at least.

https://dearrow.ajay.app/

> DeArrow is an open source browser extension for crowdsourcing better titles and thumbnails on YouTube. The goal is to make titles accurate and reduce sensationalism. No more arrows, ridiculous faces, and no more clickbait.

Re: How to title your blog post or whatever

#27

Post by hakunin »

dijit wrote: post #16
tibbar wrote: post #8

My best engagement on Hacker News has come from submitting great discussion topics; content is secondary. You're trying to think of something that people would really enjoy talking about if they just got the chance. So if you can notice systemic issues and perhaps give them a name, you're halfway to the front page already. When they read your title, people think of all kinds of related ideas that they've been dying t…

Agreed, when it comes to writing for hackernews I have had the best results personally when being curious but incomplete. If I try to actually educate someone or do my research fully, either someone will know more than me, and an expert will weigh in to invalidate some section of my posting- or people will pretend to be an expert- and you’ll spend a day trying to discuss why what they’re saying is incorrect. Both wil…

> If I try to actually educate someone or do my research fully, either someone will know more than me, and an expert will weigh in to invalidate some section of my posting- or people will pretend to be an expert- and you’ll spend a day trying to discuss why what they’re saying is incorrect. Both will cause the discussion for other people to die.

Personally, I love the debates that stress-test my posts, they're the most interesting part for me. If I put effort into writing something, might as well defend it, and wouldn't want any punches pulled. Oftentimes people's attempts at debunking my message end up doing quite the opposite to what I'd expect — further validating what I wrote. Other times I need to clarify something in the post.

Re: How to title your blog post or whatever

#28

Post by dijit »

hakunin wrote: post #27
dijit wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Agreed, when it comes to writing for hackernews I have had the best results personally when being curious but incomplete. If I try to actually educate someone or do my research fully, either someone will know more than me, and an expert will weigh in to invalidate some section of my posting- or people will pretend to be an expert- and you’ll spend a day trying to discuss why what they’re saying is incorrect. Both wil…

> If I try to actually educate someone or do my research fully, either someone will know more than me, and an expert will weigh in to invalidate some section of my posting- or people will pretend to be an expert- and you’ll spend a day trying to discuss why what they’re saying is incorrect. Both will cause the discussion for other people to die. Personally, I love the debates that stress-test my posts, they're the mo…

Yeah, I agree.

But it does sting a bit to do a month of research and then someone comes along in 10s and invalidates it.

I still welcome it, but it does sting.

The more annoying ones are the ones who don’t engage and act emotionally when presented with a conclusion they don’t like. The reason for me to write most often is because I found something I think is worthy of being discussed and that almost never aligns with peoples preconceived sensibilities.

Re: How to title your blog post or whatever

#29

Post by 90s_dev »

tibbar wrote: post #8

My best engagement on Hacker News has come from submitting great discussion topics; content is secondary. You're trying to think of something that people would really enjoy talking about if they just got the chance. So if you can notice systemic issues and perhaps give them a name, you're halfway to the front page already. When they read your title, people think of all kinds of related ideas that they've been dying t…

Yeah, HN is an excitement factory. I come here when I want to talk about something I'm excited about, or read people talking about what they're excited about.

Re: How to title your blog post or whatever

#30

Post by DonHopkins »

My favorite is Peter Norvig's contradictory clickbait url:

https://norvig.com/21-days.html

Entitled: "Teach Yourself Programming in Ten Years"!

People who just see then click on the URL must be really disappointed when they read the actual title.

Doesn't hurt that it's a great article, too!

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