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Re:Japanese Newspaper for Recluses, by Recluses by randyrand on Sunday February 17, 2019 @01:11AM (#19182923)
The original title may be a bit too clickbaity sure, but the new HN title does lose some signal. (current HN title: “A Newspaper by recluses for recluses”, removing “The most interesting newspaper in japan...”

Giving you reason you should read the article is useful info, even if it’s subjective. And it helps the reader know what to suspect. Is this a landing page for the newspaper? Or is it someone’s opinion or review if it? That signal is all lost now.

Maybe instead of saying “The most interesting” it should say “An interesting”. that way the signal is not lost.

Re:Japanese Newspaper for Recluses, by Recluses by Stratoscope on Sunday February 17, 2019 @02:34AM (#19183174)
The problem with "The most interesting..." or "An interesting..." is that it adds zero signal.

Everything is interesting to someone. So what?

It reminds me of the early days of Macintosh programming when we put "the" in front of all our variable names, like theResource, theWindow, theFile, and theCursor. It was just a lot of noise that added nothing.

Strunk and White got this right: Eschew needless words.

That said, I was glad to see this and read the article. Atlas Obscura has such a knack for finding the most interesting topics!

Re:Japanese Newspaper for Recluses, by Recluses by taneq on Sunday February 17, 2019 @11:44PM (#19188696)
Starting your variables with 'the' or 'my' is a huge red flag. It betrays a complete lack of understanding of why variable names even exist.
Re:Japanese Newspaper for Recluses, by Recluses by randyrand on Monday February 18, 2019 @03:53AM (#19189402)
I gave an example of signal it gives - it differentiates itself from a landing page. The current title sounds like a landing page.
Re:Japanese Newspaper for Recluses, by Recluses by glandium on Sunday February 17, 2019 @01:37AM (#19183008)
Even in the original title, it feels like "recluse" loses some signal. It seems Hikikomori is mainstream enough that it could have made it to the title, and feels more specific than "recluse". But maybe that's my non-native English living in Japan brain that didn't click on recluse...
Re:Japanese Newspaper for Recluses, by Recluses by johnchristopher on Sunday February 17, 2019 @01:23AM (#19182962)
Maybe HN would benefit from implementing previewing links with open graph.