One reason I could think of is because it encourages informative titles - I enjoy being able to click directly from home page to article, without having to look at the comments. A lower percentage of posters would explain Ruff in the title if there was a description. (Clearly it's currently not 100% either, that's why I'm here.)

Though this is something that keeps coming up on Reddit as well, I assume there's a reason why HN went with this design.

This conflicts with the HN guideline of not editorialising titles, which leads to titles often having little or zero context.

It’s clearly explained in the FAQ:

> How do I make a link in a text submission?

> You can't. This is to prevent people from submitting a link with their comments in a privileged position at the top of the page. If you want to submit a link with comments, just submit it, then add a regular comment.

If you want to add more context, add it in a comment. If it’s good people will upvote it.