Yup. When I discovered HN about 3 years ago, I read most of the posts and maybe some comments.
Now, it's opposite. I read a lot of comments and usually don't read the links themselves. From my experience, the value of the links decreases after some time as things inevitably start repeating. Not the same links, but the same ideas, concepts (not always, of course).
I view HN as a forum, where the title of the link is the topic for a thread.
Hi mzarate - In the first draft, the comments were inside the "Y-Meter" - I do too check out the comments first to see the buzz around the article. Later it was overload with information right at the beginning.
Thanks :)
Re:Show HN: Hacker News Redesign
by tomblomfield on Tuesday July 08, 2014 @11:40AM
(#8005017)
Exactly - I look for articles with a high number of comments, and usually jump into the comments first.
To add to what you've said, 9 times out of 10 I'll actually click to scan the comments first, not the article. Comments often provide some summary that indicate whether an article is worth reading or not.