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Moderators of HN: please stop changing post titles

news.ycombinator.com

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Re: Moderators of HN: please stop changing post titles

#31

Post by kirubakaran »

there wrote: post #19
kirubakaran wrote: post #15

At the very least, a comment should be automatically added logging "Title was changed from X to Y".

I'd love it if a moderator would post something when they change a title so it's clear what happened and who did it, but it would probably generate a lot of useless meta threads debating the change (and of course, it would actually reveal who the moderators are).

That can be solved by all mods posting as "mod" and not having a 'reply' link to that comment. (I am not advocating removing 'reply' link though)

Re: Moderators of HN: please stop changing post titles

#32

Post by saraid216 »

dredmorbius wrote: post #25

I would prefer that the alternative of posting either a link or explanatory text be changed to allow both . Often a title, original or otherwise, simply doesn't provide sufficient context to clearly explain a link. A few well-chosen words of prose could help here (more so if the text could be editied / modified while the post was sitting in queue). Gameable? Perhaps, but we can vote down / flag in that instance. "Hea…

I also decided not to click through on the "Heat & Thunder" article until I saw here that it's about visualizations.

Re: Moderators of HN: please stop changing post titles

#33

Post by dfc »

ilamont wrote: post #7

On occasion, I have experienced my submitted headlines being reverted back to the original source's obscure headline. More often than not these obscure headlines were made for a print newspaper or magazine where the lede (which HN readers can't see unless they click through) explains the story. In addition, the 80-character limit sometimes makes it difficult to include the original headline for some of the more wordy…

I wish the title field was exactly eighty characters so that you would know where your title needed to be cropped, instead of bruteforcing it or piping it to wc or cut.

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Re: Moderators of HN: please stop changing post titles

#34

Post by lupatus »

I agree whole-heartedly. Moderators frequently changing titles is an annoying practice. The article's links are not descriptive (they're just id numbers), so the article titles are how I mentally keep track of which submissions I want to, or don't want to, read. Changing the the title makes me have to guess if it is a new submission to hit the front page or just an old one with new clothes, so to speak.

Re: Moderators of HN: please stop changing post titles

#35

Post by _delirium »

dredmorbius wrote: post #25

I would prefer that the alternative of posting either a link or explanatory text be changed to allow both . Often a title, original or otherwise, simply doesn't provide sufficient context to clearly explain a link. A few well-chosen words of prose could help here (more so if the text could be editied / modified while the post was sitting in queue). Gameable? Perhaps, but we can vote down / flag in that instance. "Hea…

I agree; that's one thing that I think has really gotten worse from the Slashdot model to the Digg/Reddit/HN model. The Slashdot blurbs weren't great, but a bare list of links even more emphasizes linkbait and what you might call "easy" content (articles with one clear point that can be summarized in 5 words). In that ecosystem, anything that takes even three sentences to explain the appeal of tends not to go anywhere.

I end up not submitting most of the long-form or academic things I think HN readers might find interesting as a result, since just from the headline probably nobody will know why it was submitted or why they should care. Sometimes if I think something is really good I'll make an exception and submit, followed by posting a comment explaining why I thought the submission was interesting. That occasionally works, but I think most people don't click through to comments on the New page.

I'm not really blaming the readers, because I find the same problem browsing the New page myself: in this list of cryptic headlines, the only thing that stands out are controversy-type headlines ("Why you should never X"), and the rest is hard to skim.

Re: Moderators of HN: please stop changing post titles

#36

Post by tokenadult »

grellas wrote: post #30
pbhjpbhj wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> If curators are going to do that kind of thing, they should at least sign their edits to take accountability for them. // Yes, it's very rude to alter someone else's text without claiming 'credit' for doing so or referring the edits back to be accepted by the attributed author. FWIW it's also an infringement of the moral rights enshrined within copyright law. You can't modify someone else's work without a license t…

While it is true that comment submissions to HN give an implied license for HN to post the content, with copyright being held by the submitter, you can't copyright names, titles, or short phrases (see, e.g., the 6th entry down in this FAQ section from the Copyright Office - http://www.copyright.gov/help/faq/faq-protect.html ). Because of this, there is no license needed to amend a title to an article as no one owns r…

That said, I once had a legal submission amended to a title that was really wrong legally

Because I always appreciate your posts, and I would hate to be misled by any title that was put on them by someone else, I'd love to see the link to the example you have in mind.

Thanks for your comments on the legal background to the issue at hand. Certainly my claim is not that HN cannot do whatever HN's leaders like. I am simply suggesting that I would like to be on notice, as one user among thousands, about what best behavior here is.

Re: Moderators of HN: please stop changing post titles

#37

Post by pooriaazimi »

citricsquid wrote: post #16

My most upvoted comment (85 points) in my second most upvoted submission (554 points) is a complaint about exactly this. In my case they changed the title from: "Lights -- impressive html5 / webgl presentation built with threejs" to: "Lights" http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3107946

I remember this one. I deliberately didn't click on that story or upvote it, because I though it was a linkbaity article - what was the f'ing submitter thinking? I have to click on that link to see if it's something even remotely interesting (and presumably profit such a nasty submitter by more ad-views)? No, thank you.

After a day, I thought maybe it's something really cool that's got so much upvotes and then clicked on it and was literally blown away.

Re: Moderators of HN: please stop changing post titles

#39

Post by mistercow »

pooriaazimi wrote: post #37
citricsquid wrote: post #16

My most upvoted comment (85 points) in my second most upvoted submission (554 points) is a complaint about exactly this. In my case they changed the title from: "Lights -- impressive html5 / webgl presentation built with threejs" to: "Lights" http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3107946

I remember this one. I deliberately didn't click on that story or upvote it, because I though it was a linkbaity article - what was the f'ing submitter thinking? I have to click on that link to see if it's something even remotely interesting (and presumably profit such a nasty submitter by more ad-views)? No, thank you. After a day, I thought maybe it's something really cool that's got so much upvotes and then clicke…

>and was literally blown away

Where did you end up? Did you land on something soft?

Re: Moderators of HN: please stop changing post titles

#40

Post by [deleted] »

pbhjpbhj wrote: post #23
tokenadult wrote: post #8

I can give an example of a title change AWAY from the original article title. I was quite puzzled by that when it happened, and I've never heard an explanation of why it happened. I heard about an article from a researcher on human genetics who was writing to other human genetics researchers on an email list. I meet many of those researchers in person in a local "journal club." The researcher was asking for responses…

> If curators are going to do that kind of thing, they should at least sign their edits to take accountability for them. // Yes, it's very rude to alter someone else's text without claiming 'credit' for doing so or referring the edits back to be accepted by the attributed author. FWIW it's also an infringement of the moral rights enshrined within copyright law. You can't modify someone else's work without a license t…

[deleted]
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