
Did you even read the article? - kenning
I&#x27;ve noticed that I have a tendency to not actually read articles posted here or on Reddit and instead skip straight to the comments. Does anyone else do this?<p>Comment sections are usually a mixed bag, but I always prefer a variety of opinions on a topic. Then if people are positive about the article I will go back and read it.
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codegeek
I always skim through comments first to decide if the article is even worth
reading. YMMV.

I browse HN daily and if I see a post that I "think" I can contribute to or is
of interest, I open the comments thread first. Then if it seems fit, I read
the article unless of course it is an Ask HN which I already read. I upvote it
as well.

In some cases, I know I cannot contribute to the post in a meaningful way but
I want to see the discussion as it is interesting. In that case, I just upvote
and shut up.

~~~
enigmalord
I do exactly that :)

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tjr
I very often read only the comments on HN, as they are routinely more
interesting to me than the articles.

In fact, it might be worth trying out not even needing articles. Just submit a
topic.

 _Discuss HN: Numerical analysis_

 _Discuss HN: Rust vs C for embedded development_

 _Discuss HN: Health benefits (or myths?) of eating kale_

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BillBohan
I skip past articles and their comments if I know that I will not understand
them, e.g. details of a language which I do not know.

Sometimes I will look at articles which are about things I have never heard of
just to find out what that is. Sometimes, the article does not sufficiently
explain what it is, like when they only tell about the improvements over the
previous release. In these cases I try to find what it is from comments.

If an article is tl;dr sometimes I look to the comments to see whether I can
get the gist in brief.

For articles within my realm of interest I will usually read the entire
article, then the comments.

I usually avoid making comments on articles I have not read unless the
comments provide sufficient explanation for me to add my input.

I truly appreciate the intelligence and courtesy of the comments on HN and try
to bring the same to it.

~~~
AnimalMuppet
Seconded. Too often the headline doesn't tell me what the topic is, let alone
whether it's worth reading. The comments will, though, in a hurry.

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davelnewton
> Then if people are positive about the article I will go back and read it.

This strikes me as over-editing your intake feed and potentially missing out
on information that _you_ might be positive about, or take action on, or...

~~~
Broken_Hippo
Gotta start trimming the hedge somewhere. It isn't so much missing information
as needing to pick and choose due to time constraints.

Sometimes, it is more that the article is fairly technical and I can learn
more about the subject from the comments. Sometimes enough to make more sense
out of the article itself.

Positive doesn't really mean happy: Positive in terms on content or good
writing means the article is worth the time to read. "Long read but good"
might mean to come back later. Surprisingly controversial topic? Yeah,
probably should read, it'll be a positive thing to have in my brain.

And so on and so forth.

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dmarlow
Only if it's interesting enough to read. Usually the comments are more
interesting.

If someone summarizes or does a TL;DR, I'm even less likely to read it.

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miguelrochefort
I open ~10% of articles I comment on.

~~~
kenning
Hell yeah dude cowboy commenting

