HN Explorer

Ask HN: Does anyone else value the comments more than the link?

282 points by pvinis ↗ HN
I always open the comment page of a HN post first, then read a couple of comments. When not many comments are there, I click on the link on top and read the article. Many times, I never read the actual linked article. After reading the comments of people here in HN, I can understand the gist, or more, of the article linked, and also know the thoughts of many people. I enjoy reading the agreeing, disagreeing, proving, disproving, controversial comments much more. Am I the only one?

98 comments

[ 5.2 ms ] story [ 150 ms ] thread
aspirin
I usually read the linked article first, but I too value the discussion most. Many times an uninteresting (for me) link will produce a very fascinating dialogue.
pandler
Same. The comments usually give necessary context for links on subjects I'm not familiar with.
ainiriand
When I stumble upon an interesting topic in HN it generally has: 25% importance the link, 75% importance the comments. To be honest, when I read the comments I feel a bit dumb because of the high level of the commenters.
ersnyder1
I definitely do-- I'll open a tab for each comment stream of links I'm interested in. After browsing the comments, I'll then make a decision re: whether I should open/bookmark the link.
meraku
Absolutely. Usually read the comments first, before the linked article. There's nearly always an interesting discussion going on.
blumkvist
I felt guilty because I always read at least some of the comments first.

Liberating to see other people are the same :D

Cshelton
I always validate the article link by reading some of the top comments first. It's easy to see if or not even opening the article would be a waste of time. I've even responded to comments without reading the article...

Edit: I just read what you actually wrote. See, I even do it when it's not a link. I go off headlines then.

blooberr
Yes, I always read the comments first. They act as a great prefilter before I attempt to the actual article.
realitygrill
Yes, I also usually only read the comments. Only if I'm convinced (by the discussion) that the link is worthwhile, will I click on it.
hodgesmr
To me this reads "I can't make up my own opinion, I need others to influence my judgement and opinions."
pjc50
The comments thread is physically easier to read (no ads, banners, interference with scroll, carousels, clickbait sidebar) and gets to the point much quicker. And if people are rehashing a tired argument in the comments then I can skip the topic entirely.

The linked article itself is also allowing others to influence your judgement and opinion, especially if it's a news article.

icebraining
Every link on this site is only here because others have submitted and upvoted them, so everyone here is being influenced. That's the whole point of the site - having a community choose what's worth reading.
jstelly
Or maybe it's that comments: a) load fast b) are always text c) don't include ads or videos d) are somewhat uniformly formatted and relatively easy to parse e) often include enough of a summary to make a quick decision about a link

There are usually lots of valuable features contained in comments that are quick/easy to use.

realitygrill
I could see that perspective, but I prefer to exercise my judgment on the comments.

It's a compromise for time and also a small measure against tab-explosions.

dpcan
I think one could argue that the majority of the "articles" or "posts" on HN are merely the opinions of their authors anyway. There are a few based in fact, or purely fact, or real "News", but a lot of times, they are just asides, or general ramblings of another person on the net - then there are the comments here that add real value to the piece.
hodgesmr
The point that I was trying to make is that it's much easier to be influenced by a swarm of commenters and to unknowingly align your opinions with them. You're more likely to disagree genuinely with ONE article than with 150 comments all echoing each other. Alas, downvote me, please.
spacemanmatt
I thought that was the whole purpose of filtered (moderated) communities like this. I totally read comments for value, and linked articles for completeness if the commentary leads me to think there's more value there.
arsenide
I always read the comments first, and recently have rarely been reading the articles unless there is no discussion yet, or it seems really interesting.

I do have a personal rule that I will never, under any circumstance, comment without reading the article in its entirety first.

themagician
The comments are the content. It has been this way since the earliest days of Slashdot. The reason that Slashdot, Digg, Reddit and HN exist is because of the comments, not the links.

The reason things like Delicious ultimately failed was because "bookmarking" and "link sharing" are not what most people find entertaining.

PirateDave
I have the same view. I can usually go through the comments without reading the article. Also, the comments will usually provide more insight with first-hand accounts or analogies.
petercooper
I find Product Hunt mostly interesting for the links and less the comments BUT.. the quality is very high and curated (unlike Delicious) which makes a big difference. Pure links can be a winning play, but only if there's some shape around the curation of them.
duck
I agree, but assume by "comments" you mean community. If it was just random comments it would be terrible.

Also, just to give a little insight in some data -- on my Hacker Newsletter side-project, the HN links (which are included for every article) see about 15% of the total clicks. I don't have an easy way to look the ratio of article/hn, but I'm going to look into that more and see if I can pull that as well. That ratio has dropped over the years as my newsletter pulls in more and more non-HN regulars.

pervycreeper
It varies from case to case, and depends on two principal factors: 1-the comments, and 2-the link.
AndrewKemendo
I used to do this more than I do now, especially with reddit links.

I found however that if I read the comments prior to the article I am primed by whatever the top comments say, and thus my (relative) objectivity coming into the article is already skewed, which is bad.

So it really depends on the article, but usually when the headline indicates that the topic is controversial I will read it first. If the topic is technical I will go to the comments first to avoid potentially cementing bad practices.

pvinis
Completely agree.

Sometimes I read an article and think the same way as some comments I read before reading the article, and a couple of days later, I will randomly think of the article in a different view. Then I understand the "anchoring" that you and others said.

Still, I enjoy reading the comments. High quality, oftentimes summarizing or explaining the article's ideas etc, and always having interesting points of view.

scottshea
The comments, for me, definitely add to the discussion but it is still the headline/link that catch my attention to read in the first place. My normal rule on the net, especially for things I write, is 'do not read the comments' except for HN... and Deadspin when the article is about a sport not widely played in the US. I learn a lot about the sport that way.
halcyondaze
I think that most people do, and most people should - it's the principle of social proof at work. Most of us value this community, so we look to those who came before us to an article to signal if it's worth a read or not.

I think a better question is: what type of comments and discussion will lead you actually click through to the article?

jabo
I read the comments first too, more often than I like sadly. Although, I sometimes feel like my perception of the original article is biased because I read the comments of a few people before I've had a chance to form my own perspective after reading the original article. So I consciously skip the comments sometimes, as tempting as they may be, and read the original article.
hodgesmr
Sometimes. But often the comments make me sad and I log off HN for a few days. Too much hubris. Too much criticism. Too much hand-waving.
binarymax
Yes I tend to do this as well.

One thing I don't do however, is add commentary without reading TFA first!

surapaneni
Unless it links to a big named company / things that I follow, I usually read the comments first. Maybe I'm paranoid to click links or need others opinion first.
joedavison
For me, it depends on the article. There are some articles where I only care about the article, and ignore the comments. On the other end of the spectrum, there are some articles where the only thing that's interesting is the discussion around it.
izolate
Possibly a bit too much. Forgetting there is even a link aspect to this site means I'm missing out on a great deal. I should probably read more articles, but gosh darn it, you all are so interesting.

Between HN, reddit and YouTube, I'm pretty spoiled. I cannot watch a video or read an article without looking for the closest discussion on what I just aborbed.

animex
If I don't understand an article or the significance of an article appearing on the first page, often the comments will highlight the thrust, a TL;DR if you prefer. Most of the time, I only turn to the comments when I feel the commentary would provide value. And I love the quality of the comments on HN compared to other social sites, you just know you're going to get a better quality of responses here than anywhere.