Ask HN: Why do I need to use links' original titles?

6 points

13 years ago

Some general news headlines are not really written up to "hacker standards". For example, the current #1 post is this: "Google shares hit $1,000 after strong earnings (bbc.co.uk)" and many of the comments are about how the stock price itself doesn't matter.

Similarly, there's "Sleep Flushes Toxins from the Brain (bbc.co.uk)" which annoyed several readers as well.

Some other titles are quite obscure & vague. I remember seeing "Reveal.js", but finding the site to be unreachable, and totally being unable to figure out what it does. It feels like linkbait because I can't figure out what it is until I click on it.

In general, it'd be good to summarize articles in titles, instead of simply using their original titles. Does anyone agree?

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