[ericd]

Excellent points, and excellent work moderating, thanks for all you do.

I think the point about the headlines being the one thing everyone reads is especially important for everyone to realize, and I wish the people coming up with titles would realize and take seriously the huge responsibility they have, not just for the number of clicks they garner, but also the fact that very often people read that as the summary and internalize it as fact. Every time the writers stretch the truth to get more clicks, they’re doing slight harm to huge numbers of people.

Thanks for keeping this corner of the internet a bit cleaner of that.

[dang]

The problem is systemic. Those tricks work in the short term, forcing everyone to use them. The long term costs are externalities.

HN is in a special position, maybe even a unique one. If it were a standalone business we'd have to optimize for traffic, not curiosity. It's only because HN is part of YC that it can be HN.

[ericd]

You’re right, I just hope they feel some shame as they do it. I’d hoped that trying to maintain their brand would have kept NYT from this, but it seems like no one is immune.

[dang]

I'm sure they hate it. No one is immune. Even science journals have started doing it!

I wonder what it will take for the publishing industry to find a solution. Not long ago, articles about the death of the music industry were a staple of online forums. Eventually we got simple ways to pay for most music at a fair rate. I haven't seen one of those articles in a while.

[ericd]

Yeah, hoping there’s some business model that deemphasizes impressions in favor of engagement. My personal favorite idea is Spotify for news with share of subscription fee given out based on time on site or something less purely click based. Main problem I see there is convincing the big guys to give up some control over their customer base, and convincing them that they’ll make more overall, despite potentially making much less per reader than with their other subscribers. Big problems, to be sure.