It isn't a term, it's a platitude. Mentioning it upon sight of a question mark has become a local tic—little more than a specialized "first!". Predictable comments add no new information and so dilute the threads.

But what's worse is the attempt to stop discussion. Yes, baity titles often ask baity questions, but HN has other means to deal with those. Meanwhile, other questions are legitimate and deserve sincere consideration.

Betteridge was interesting when pg first brought it up [1]. It was fun to toss about for a while. Three years and hundreds of invocations later, it is long past cliché.

1. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4092880