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Re:Ask HN: How many people read the linked article or just t... by oblib on Sunday October 10, 2021 @07:27PM (#28822895)
I almost always read the articles I comment on here, or a least skim them.

But I don't click on something every time I come here. I skim the front page and the "new" page several times most days but probably only click a link an average of about 5-10 times a day.

I come here when I'm taking a break from coding. I take a lot of short breaks.

The thing I love most about HN is the wide range of topics people share here. I find stuff here that I just wouldn't come across anywhere else.

That and the opportunity to see what others think about and add to those topics offers such a great way to learn that HN is one of the very few sites I do visit every day.

And the main reason I visit it is to find links to click on. Next would be to read the comments. Much further, but next after that would be to comment on the subject and content of the link.

Re:Ask HN: How many people read the linked article or just t... by ed_elliott_asc on Sunday October 10, 2021 @08:13PM (#28823163)
The opportunity to see what others think of a topic is what I think I come here for as well
Re:Ask HN: How many people read the linked article or just t... by auslegung on Sunday October 10, 2021 @06:51PM (#28822692)
It depends on the topic of the article. If the article is some topic that’s over my head I’ll skim the comments because inevitably someone has summarized it in a way I can understand. I think that’s about the only example where I consistently read the comments and not the article. So maybe 15% of the time?
Re:Ask HN: How many people read the linked article or just t... by oblib on Sunday October 10, 2021 @07:45PM (#28823005)
I usually skim the article first and then come back to the comments for insight and clarity, especially when the subject is over my head.

I am often amazed by the discussions I read here. The depth of knowledge and understanding of often very complex subjects is really quite impressive here.

So is the arrogance sometimes. But that's common on the internet and I've learned to try and find value if it's there and ignore the hubris. For the most part I see less of that here than is common elsewhere. "Down voting" probably does a lot to discourage that.

Re:Ask HN: How many people read the linked article or just t... by the__alchemist on Monday October 11, 2021 @12:03PM (#28829817)
I'll generally at least skim the article. The comments can be a tool to see if the articles are worth reading.

Tangent: Is there a reason why when I submit articles, it truncates to the home page of the site? Ie I'll submit the full URL; it'll show as correct at first. Then within a few minutes, the link will revert to the home page.

Re:Ask HN: How many people read the linked article or just t... by cercatrova on Monday October 11, 2021 @02:44AM (#28825476)
I only read the comments. I almost never read the article. In fact, of every 100 posts I read, I'd probably read the article once.
Re:Ask HN: How many people read the linked article or just t... by snickersnee11 on Monday October 11, 2021 @03:38AM (#28825801)
How many people search before creating another Ask HN, which was discussed already many times?
Re:Ask HN: How many people read the linked article or just t... by giantg2 on Sunday October 10, 2021 @08:18PM (#28823205)
I believe this same question was posted last week. Maybe you can find answers there.
Re:Ask HN: How many people read the linked article or just t... by indianpianist on Wednesday October 13, 2021 @04:44PM (#28857464)
I always only read the comments.
Re:Ask HN: How many people read the linked article or just t... by ai_ia on Monday October 11, 2021 @04:22AM (#28826040)
I have a thumb rule. If it's anything from nyt, medium or dev.to, I glance at the comments to see if it's worth it. There is usually someone who gives the tl;dr in the first few comments.

The links I am most likely to click are show HN and personal dev blogs..

Re:Ask HN: How many people read the linked article or just t... by softwaredoug on Monday October 11, 2021 @06:34PM (#28833852)
Well the Web generally is a shit show of ads, bad performance, paywalls, tracking, SEO blog-spam boilerplate, and more...

So TBH I prefer to stay in the comments where I'm more likely to find interesting, more usable content.