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Comment by tptacek | Hacker News Reader

This title is editorializing a little bit: it refers to a throwaway comment in a longer, more interesting article.

It is editorialized, but I would not have followed a link titled "Domain Names" as it does not convey the quality of the article.

I think it's reasonable to use one of the more interesting points of the article when the original title is so vague.

So basically linkbait works, and it's just lucky that this time it pointed to something worthwhile?

Uh, yes. If this wasn't the case then 'marketing' wouldn't be a skill.

I was trying to support reasonable use of editorial. I was not supporting "linkbait" editorial. There is a big difference.

The poster referenced a piece of the article. He/she did no use gratuitous link bait like "* * * TOP 5 DOMAIN CHOOSING TIPS [vid] * * * ". It's unfair to treat them like they did just because they changed the title.

Completely agree. And about the actual article... isn't debating the merits of the domain names publicly going to attract domain sitters to buy those names as they are discussed? Especially given the emphasis on .coms, they are cheap to own and sit on.

It mentioned contacting someone, so not exactly in the open. I guess they could register everything that seems decent and then discuss the choices in the open.

Say, hypothetically, you discover a long, well-written, insightful and generally intellectual-curiosity-gratifying essay on the craft of programming, titled "10 Ways to Grow Your Penis". Would it be reasonable to editorialize?

At least it wasn't called "Book publishers are too gutless to call old people dumb." THAT would've been over the top :)

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