Ask HN: Why is HN non-visual?

does what it says on the tin. no need for inane, "must get user eyeballs" stuff.

Getting images for links can be tricky too, you need to make sure they're all https, formatted right (file type and size) then you need to store them as well, plus a ton of sites (especially tech ones) don't have proper markup and have no images available to use, so it's basically too much hassle and HN works fine without it.

>hackers love texts rather than visual elements?

Basically, yes. I don't necessarily agree but the assumption that style and substance are mutually opposed is baked into the DNA of the culture here:

    A site trying to be as big as possible wants to attract everyone. But a site aiming at a particular subset of users has to attract just those—and just as importantly, repel everyone else. I've made a conscious effort to do this on HN. The graphic design is as plain as possible, and the site rules discourage dramatic link titles. The goal is that the only thing to interest someone arriving at HN for the first time should be the ideas expressed there.

http://www.paulgraham.com/hackernews.html

Also, social media tags and metadata are often riddled with SEO nonsense and not always accurate or useful. Content previews, if they exist, might be useful but the last thing Hacker News needs is to discourage even more people from actually engaging with posted content, so previews might also be counterproductive in terms of affecting conversation quality.

Master Foo Discourses on the Graphical User Interface

One evening, Master Foo and Nubi attended a gathering of programmers who had met to learn from each other. One of the programmers asked Nubi to what school he and his master belonged. Upon being told they were followers of the Great Way of Unix, the programmer grew scornful.

“The command-line tools of Unix are crude and backward”, he scoffed. “Modern, properly designed operating systems do everything through a graphical user interface”.

Master Foo said nothing, but pointed at the moon. A nearby dog began to bark at the master's hand.

“I don't understand you!” said the programmer.

Master Foo remained silent, and pointed at an image of the Buddha. Then he pointed at a window.

“What are you trying to tell me?” asked the programmer.

Master Foo pointed at the programmer's head. Then he pointed at a rock.

“Why can't you make yourself clear?” demanded the programmer.

Master Foo frowned thoughtfully, tapped the the programmer twice on the nose, and dropped him in a nearby trashcan.

As the programmer was attempting to extricate himself from the garbage, the dog wandered over and piddled on him.

At that moment, the programmer achieved enlightenment.

Source: http://www.catb.org/~esr/writings/taoup/html/gui-programmer....