Top posts get lots of comments ("Ask HN" especially). Do you read them all? Scan them all? Read only the top few? Is it worth the time?
by wallflower on 1/26/17, 6:05 PM
Many times, I will just read the comments. Since the commenters on some of these articles can be subject matter experts, sometimes reading the comments are more informative than the actual article itself. A particular example: if the article espouses a single viewpoint, the comments will shine the spotlight on alternative ways of seeing. The more esoteric the subject matter (e.g. Higgs boson), the more interesting the comments. I think my all-time favorite commenter is grellas [1].
[1] https://news.ycombinator.com/user?id=grellas
by lend000 on 1/26/17, 5:57 PM
Comments are what make HN/Reddit (on certain subreddits) so valuable. It provides a means for well-educated communities to discuss topics freely and casually, and to aggregate a number of diverse opinions that would be impossible/orders of magnitude slower and more limited prior to the Internet. And the format is much more appealing than IRC channels or typical forums.
The links are only half of the equation (perhaps less, to me).
by GFischer on 1/26/17, 5:28 PM
I usually read the top comment and a few branches, then I scroll down and start reading from the bottom and upvote stuff that might have missed the cut.
I scan most comments but I usually don't read discussions that have become too long (more than 2 or 3 back and forth replies) unless they're really relevant.
by falava on 1/26/17, 6:47 PM
by robteix on 1/26/17, 6:26 PM
More often than not I read _only_ the comments and don't even bother to click the link unless one of the comments raises my curiosity.
The comments are what make HN good.
by tehwalrus on 1/26/17, 6:32 PM
The thing I like most about HN is the comments. Upvotes (and therefore discussion ranking) tend to be awarded to comments which add new knowledge and expertise to the discussion.
The format isn't the special sauce, which is very similar to Reddit. I think the special sauce is the audience doing the commenting and voting, who seem to me to be experts who enhance the content in the links.
Like several others, I confess to mostly just reading the comments here, and mostly not the articles (the headline is usually enough).
by probablyfiction on 1/26/17, 5:45 PM
I'll check the comments if I'm interested in the topic, but aside from that I tend to avoid HN comments. The comments as a whole seem to be overly negative and contrarian...to the point where often there isn't a whole lot of value to be derived.
by ci5er on 1/26/17, 6:03 PM
I come here for the comments. The "news" I can/do get elsewhere. I tend to read the first two comments and their children and then pop to the bottom and scroll up. Not every discussion contained under a posting is gold, but there are some really good points made frequently enough that its "worth it" to me. And, now, I flip through comments on a couple of posts when I previously would have gone to smoke a cigarette, so I'm not really wasting any more time than I already was. (I do miss the stand, stretch, walk and breathe deeply part of smoking, and would make a point of doing it more often if it didn't still make me want to smoke so badly!)
by johansch on 1/26/17, 5:43 PM
I probably scan at least 50% of the comments of the stories that reach the front page. (I.e. all of the comments on the 50% of the stories that I'm reasonably interested in.)
I'm relatively good at scanning large volumes of text but it's a bit of a chore. So far I feel it's worth the effort though. The comments are usually more interesting than the linked articles.
One note: While I do think HN is reasonably effective at ranking interesting stories, the ranking of the comments do leave something to be desired. I do feel like I need to scan all of the comments - something interesting/valuable is almost about as likely to appear towards the bottom of the comments page as towards the top.
by SippinLean on 1/26/17, 5:48 PM
The discussion is a big part of HN for me. Like early reddit, you often get experts in their field, or constructive, thoughtful criticism of an article.
Jokes and other low-effort replies are thoroughly discouraged.
by Raphmedia on 1/26/17, 5:48 PM
I come here for the comments. The links you can find elsewhere. A calm community able to discuss topics? Now that's gold.
by gtaylor on 1/26/17, 5:52 PM
I like Ask HN, but I am selective about which other threads I get too deep into the comments on. Many of the discussions on here break down into quibbles over wording or minor points. Or pointless, showboating pedantry.
When I do go comment diving, I'm looking for substance. Not grammar, spelling, or minor wording or terminology back-and-forth.
by Kenji on 1/26/17, 6:00 PM
I usually write a comment, read other people's comments and then read the article. In that order ;)
Jokes aside, I actually do tend to value the content of HN comments more than the actual links. Very often, only the comments are read-worthy and not the linked articles. Sometimes, neither are read-worthy. After browsing HN for years, things tend to repeat. Yes, we know C++ templates are turing-complete. Yes, we know IoT often has terrible security. Yes, we know depression and burnout are bad. Yes, we know functional programming is super awesome. It repeats over and over.
I only skim the top comments though (and maybe their direct answers) and I only visit HN when I'm bored. Hackernews makes me restless and unproductive.
by Yhippa on 1/26/17, 6:41 PM
I focus on the top say 50% OF high level comments. I find that the more nested a chain gets in general it becomes more off topic and more like an argument of people trying to one-up each other.
I scan the top 25% of the initial high level comments and if I don't see anything interesting I move on. I know that sometimes newer comments show up at the very top so I push through those to make sure I get to the higher upvoted ones.
by bane on 1/26/17, 5:38 PM
Echoing GFischer and scott_karana that my own browsing habits tend to mirror theirs. It's definitely worth it, there's not really a better general tech discussion forum anywhere on the web right now.
by almonj on 1/26/17, 7:02 PM
I read the comments a lot. Compared to most news sites this be a utopia of brilliant discourse. Most comment sections on other websites make me want to die.
by protomyth on 1/26/17, 6:52 PM
I read the comments quite a lot, particularly now that you can hide whole threads and really focus on threads you are interested in. I think its been great for keeping a view on the lower rated threads that are more relevant to you interest. There are often some real gems at the bottom of the page.
There are commenters I like and ones I dread, I've experimented with extensions to allow notes and highlight colors / imagery to make it easier to find comments and prompt my poor memory for some information about the poster. If I ever get something I like, I'll release it, but the first efforts have been ick.
by joshbaptiste on 1/26/17, 6:58 PM
Definitely, specifically concerning subjects that are high level such as crypto, compilers, language design etc.. There are subject matter experts here who give a trove of information for free on HN that I would easily pay money to hear at a conference or lecture. I particularly enjoyed the recent "Rust vs. GO" thread where local folks broke down the advantages/disadvantages of both languages without dissolving in a flame war.
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13430108by ygaf on 1/26/17, 5:57 PM
I read all comments unless the page has grown out of control. It's the articles in question that I don't bother to read - I depend on HNers to reveal what the article said. I have dead posts turned on too.
by DavidWanjiru on 1/26/17, 6:31 PM
While I also find the comments more compelling than the links themselves, sometimes a thread degenerates and gets marooned on Pointless Island. It helps to be able to identify PI from a distance and hence stay away.
by trowawee on 1/26/17, 6:03 PM
Whether or not I read the comments is strongly correlated with how technical the subject is. My general process goes:
- View an interesting-sounding title in my RSS reader
- Click on the link to the HN comments
- Scan the top comments to see if the article is clickbait/insubstantial
- If it is not, read the article
- Either return to HN and read most/all of the comments or close both tabs, depending on the subject
I rarely find the comments on political links here particularly useful or informative, but I've derived a tremendous amount of value from the conversation on technical links.
by godshatter on 1/26/17, 5:42 PM
If it's an article I'm interested in, I'll generally read all the comments. If I want to bring up a particular point, I'll skim them to see if it's been brought up already and then read that tree of comments and post there if I still want/need to. I pay close attention to grayed out comments when I'm reading in order to make sure they are justified and up-vote them if I don't agree with the down-votes.
by mywittyname on 1/26/17, 5:40 PM
I usually read the entire comments section on HN. There's a high signal-to-noise ratio and a "big" discussion is only maybe 300-400 comments.
by donatj on 1/26/17, 6:48 PM
I personally come to HN more for the comments than anything else. It's much more focused and positive than other communities like Reddit
by anigbrowl on 1/26/17, 6:45 PM
I scan all the comment sin a thread I'm interested in, and usually read them, including the dead/flagged ones. Obviously I think it's worth it or I wouldn't keep doing it, but sometimes I get sucked into conversations I didn't really want to participate in. I delete unfinished comments and leave the thread about as often as I post.
by ohstopitu on 1/26/17, 5:53 PM
HN has an awesome community so I generally read more. I start of with the top ones (and their branches) and agressively use the (-), and then follow down.
If it's something I'm really interested about, I check back in ~12 hours to see if something new has shown up - at which point it's a scan to see the new comments.
by partycoder on 1/26/17, 6:39 PM
I really like the comments section, and conversations overall are constructive.
There are however not so constructive conversations once in a while, but it's usually people that must have the last word, rather than irrational discussions.
by segmondy on 1/26/17, 7:44 PM
I have started using the favorite so I can read them later, it helps. I have about a thousand saved links that I'll never read, but I like knowing I can go find something I've seen if need be.
by Glyptodon on 1/26/17, 5:55 PM
It varies from topic to topic so I usually check the threads. Sometimes you find great stuff. Other times you just find the prevailing groupthink. I think it's at least useful to look.
by kasey_junk on 1/27/17, 2:38 AM
I read HN by going to a set of commenters threads and seeing what is driving their interesting discussions. The articles that drive those threads tend to have the most value to me.
by wineisfine on 1/26/17, 5:58 PM
Comments like this one, you're reading now, are really worth it.
by binaryanomaly on 1/26/17, 5:44 PM
If the topic interests me I quickly browse through the comments. Quite often I find them interesting / added value. Sometimes they are also just rather white noise of the internet.
by ramtatatam on 1/26/17, 5:39 PM
Some discussions around technical solutions people deployed are interesting. I was recently reading an old thread about challanges with replication of postgres-xl nodes (!) :-)
by samsonradu on 1/26/17, 11:29 PM
I usually have a Comments first approach. Read the top 3-4 comments and if I find the subject interesting I read the post. Sometimes the comments are so interesting though that I have to read them all before clicking the post. Sometimes I skip the post.
Most of the value is in the comments, specially during these times where a lot of content on the web has a commercial purpose.
by cryptozeus on 1/26/17, 6:36 PM
Absolutely worth it !!! Sometimes comments are better than original content..so many beautiful minds here
by shireboy on 1/26/17, 7:04 PM
I really appreciate the quality and intelligence of most HN comments. I think that is one thing that sets it apart from Reddit/FB/etc. For topics I'm interested in, I do generally scan them and not necessarily read all comments every time.
by seanwilson on 1/26/17, 6:19 PM
Some articles are essentially one big comment, a single person's point of view. At least with comment threads you can get some idea if a comment is controversial or well accepted. You don't get that you only read the articles.
by Zikes on 1/26/17, 6:10 PM
I always read the comments, though sometimes I dread it. For certain subjects I'll know well in advance what most of the comments will be, and they can be surprisingly ignorant and negative.
by dennisgorelik on 1/27/17, 9:02 AM
I read top comments and keep reading comment threads until they get boring.
If discussion is interesting - I read more comments.
I may even decide to read the original article is discussion is good.
by butterfi on 1/26/17, 6:08 PM
HN is one of the few sites I even bother with the comments.
by sova on 1/27/17, 7:23 PM
About ten per day.
Yes, it's definitely worth it, if you are selective.
"read not to contradict and confute, but to weigh and consider" ~ sir francis bacon.
by Esau on 1/26/17, 9:39 PM
The comments are HN are often well worth reading.
by DrScump on 1/27/17, 1:45 AM
The consensus here is the inverse of the old Playboy joke: "I only read it for the articles."
by dzonga on 1/27/17, 12:51 AM
I have found a lot of gems in the HN comments
Way better than most of the stories themselves
by anonmous on 1/26/17, 11:59 PM
I read some. worth the time? it's just entertainment for me :)
by omarchowdhury on 1/26/17, 9:37 PM
I only read the comments.
by adamnemecek on 1/26/17, 6:38 PM
Comments is why I come.
by Skywing on 1/26/17, 6:48 PM
I hardly visit HN anymore, much less read comments.
by pdog on 1/26/17, 6:08 PM
Hundreds. No.
by adrianmacneil on 1/26/17, 5:42 PM