
Ask HN: How many comments do you read on HN? Is it worth it? - abeaclark
Top posts get lots of comments (&quot;Ask HN&quot; especially). Do you read them all? Scan them all? Read only the top few? Is it worth the time?
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wallflower
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](https://news.ycombinator.com/user?id=grellas)

~~~
echelon
At this point I read the comments more than the articles, too.

I wish there were a "favorite" feature for comments, because I'd certainly
make use of it.

~~~
iamben
There is. Click the time above the comment, then click 'favorite' :-)

~~~
Flammy
Favorited comments and stories are available from your user profile.

Note: Favorited comments and links are publicly visible.

------
lend000
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).

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GFischer
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.

~~~
scott_karana
Same as you, but I also aggressively use the [-] button to prune back side
branches, allowing me to browse "wider" :-)

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falava
I usually read the comments before the posts.

And I save time using this:

[https://news.ycombinator.com/best](https://news.ycombinator.com/best)

[https://news.ycombinator.com/bestcomments](https://news.ycombinator.com/bestcomments)

~~~
akiselev
Holy ... I did not know those features existed. That is awesome.

Is there a canonical list of all the hidden little urls and features?

~~~
falava
[https://news.ycombinator.com/lists](https://news.ycombinator.com/lists)

Missing from that list:

[https://news.ycombinator.com/classic](https://news.ycombinator.com/classic)
Front page with votes from older accounts

[https://news.ycombinator.com/over?points=100](https://news.ycombinator.com/over?points=100)
Front page with posts over n points

~~~
DanBC
Also missing:
[https://news.ycombinator.com/topcolors](https://news.ycombinator.com/topcolors)

~~~
falava
Thanks, it seems that that link is the list of users's preferences for the HN
top bar color (the topcolor value from our user page). And the list seems to
me ordered by the number of users with that color selected.

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robteix
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.

~~~
Agustus
I will read the comments to see if people recommend it or tear it apart. If it
passes muster, I click the link.

------
tehwalrus
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).

------
probablyfiction
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.

~~~
mhurron
Isn't this comment negative and contrarian?

And this one really.

~~~
probablyfiction
Touché

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ci5er
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!)

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johansch
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.

~~~
pmiller2
I wonder if the quality difference in ranking stories vs comments is because
the former can't be downvoted (only flagged), while the latter can.

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SippinLean
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.

~~~
gist
> you often get experts in their field

It's difficult to tell who is an expert in their field since it often appears
that someone is an expert simply because a) nobody is able to refute them (and
who knows the qualifications, at any given time, of anyone reading comments at
that moment and b) they appear at least to know more than you do.

I am often amazed at the well written comments here at HN. But then again I
have often no clue how correct those comments are.

~~~
datahack
That's just generally the problem when reading sufficiently advanced expert
commentary outside ones field though, isn't it? Many times deep experts in the
same field are themselves the only ones capable of calling bs.

I remember a thread on rocketry when spacex was going through it that was
pretty much Greek to me, but folks were chatting away with one another and
arguing all kinds of things I had never heard of. Great hn thread.

------
Raphmedia
I come here for the comments. The links you can find elsewhere. A calm
community able to discuss topics? Now that's gold.

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gtaylor
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.

~~~
louisswiss
Show HN is often just as insightful in my experience. Both the quality of the
criticism/feedback from the HN community and the opportunity to hear directly
from team members involved in the project are often exceptional.

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Kenji
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.

~~~
dang
I agree with you about the perennial repetition, though of course these things
are always new to somebody. What are some articles you've seen on HN recently
that _don 't_ make you restless and unproductive (if there are any)?

~~~
Kenji
Good question. The ones that are in my favourites, that'd be the quick answer
;)

I value posts with very high raw information content and some humour to go
along with it. With information content, I mean stuff like "in C++, use
virtual destructors on objects that inherit if you make use of polymorphism"
but NOT stuff like "Stop Checking Email So Often" which is an actual example
that is on the frontpage right now. Without having looked at the article, I
can already tell that it was written by someone who is required to churn out
articles even if they don't have anything to say.

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Yhippa
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.

~~~
dang
Maybe we should add a way to show/hide degrees of nesting in a thread. In
state 0, show only top-level comments, state 1, show top-level plus replies,
etc.

~~~
csa
Yes, please.

------
bane
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.

------
almonj
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.

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protomyth
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.

------
joshbaptiste
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=13430108](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13430108)

------
ygaf
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.

------
DavidWanjiru
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.

~~~
dang
When that happens, you (and everyone!) are welcome to email us at
hn@ycombinator.com. We mark such subthreads off topic, which ranks them much
lower—but we don't always see them. I hate showing up to a thread a day late
and finding pointlessness at the top!

This is a tragedy-of-the-commons dynamic. Individuals can be well-intentioned
and even mostly rational and we still end up with these suboptima. That's why
it's necessary for someone like us to come through and do the vacuuming. Point
us there and we'll do it, and send you a nice reply as well.

------
trowawee
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.

------
godshatter
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.

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mywittyname
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.

------
donatj
I personally come to HN more for the comments than anything else. It's much
more focused and positive than other communities like Reddit

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anigbrowl
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.

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ohstopitu
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.

------
partycoder
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.

------
segmondy
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.

------
Glyptodon
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.

------
kasey_junk
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.

~~~
tptacek
Same! I have no idea how people would, like, start at the top of the front
page and read their way down. I sometimes skim for security stories, but
otherwise I start from a list of commenters.

~~~
blacksmythe

      >> otherwise I start from a list of commenters.
    

Perhaps ironically, that is how I found this thread:
[https://news.ycombinator.com/threads?id=tptacek](https://news.ycombinator.com/threads?id=tptacek)

------
wineisfine
Comments like this one, you're reading now, are really worth it.

------
binaryanomaly
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.

------
ramtatatam
Some discussions around technical solutions people deployed are interesting. I
was recently reading an old thread about challanges with replication of
postgres-xl nodes (!) :-)

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samsonradu
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.

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cryptozeus
Absolutely worth it !!! Sometimes comments are better than original
content..so many beautiful minds here

------
shireboy
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.

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seanwilson
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.

------
Zikes
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.

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dennisgorelik
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.

------
butterfi
HN is one of the few sites I even bother with the comments.

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sova
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.

------
Esau
The comments are HN are often well worth reading.

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DrScump
The consensus here is the inverse of the old Playboy joke: "I only read it for
the articles."

------
dzonga
I have found a lot of gems in the HN comments Way better than most of the
stories themselves

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anonmous
I read some. worth the time? it's just entertainment for me :)

------
omarchowdhury
I only read the comments.

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adamnemecek
Comments is why I come.

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Skywing
I hardly visit HN anymore, much less read comments.

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pdog
Hundreds. No.

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adrianmacneil
I'll just leave this here...

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sampling_bias](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sampling_bias)

~~~
jdormit
Seems like a textbook case.

