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Comment by oefrha | Hacker News Reader

Please don’t editorialize titles, four out of five times the editorialized title is strictly worse, and often it’s straight up wrong, like in this case. If you don’t like the original title due to omission of info, you can at least use the HTML title:

> wikiHow’s art is made by a global network of freelancers, primarily in the Philippines.

(Emphasis mine.)

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The HTML doc title is "wikiHow’s Art Is Made By a Global Network of Freelancers, Primarily in the Philippines". That's too long to fit HN's 80 char limit, so it looks like the submitter made a good-faith attempt at shortening it, and an inaccuracy crept in that way—quite a minor inaccuracy. The submitted title ("WikiHow's art is created by an army of freelancers in the Philippines") was still far better than the sensational dross of the page heading.

HTML doc titles are a legit choice for "original title" in the HN guidelines' sense. In fact, they often say more directly what the article is about when the loudest title on a page is linkbait. That's exactly the case here, so I think the misleadingness of the submitted title ("WikiHow's art is created by an army of freelancers in the Philippines") was simply a casualty of HN's 80-char limit. That's pretty rare btw.

I've taken a crack at shortening it in a more accurate way.

OP's headline saves you a click, versus the original title: "We Finally Figured Out Who Makes wikiHow’s Bizarre Art"

Yeah, if you saved that click you also got the wrong idea. I even proposed a better official title. Makes me wonder if you read my comment at all.

I know editorializing is against the rules but I love the current title, "WikiHow's bizarre art is created by an army of freelancers in the Philippines", it sounds so quaint and absurd.

You can love what you love. I prefer a factual title.

I don't see how the current title isn't factual

I guess <em> isn’t doing its job, so let me temporarily break the guidelines:

“GLOBAL network of freelancers, PRIMARILY in the Philippines” != “an army of freelancers in the Philippines”.

Those are functionally equivalent imo. The NYPD operates in other cities and countries. I wouldn't expect people to preface a description of them by saying they were a global police force based primarily in the Phillipines

I don't think so.

> GLOBAL network of freelancers, PRIMARILY in the Philippines

Would mean: freelancers from all over the world, but most of them in the Philippines.

While

> an army of freelancers in the Philippines

Would mean: freelancers from the Philippines, and only in the Philippines.

At least that's my view as a non-native speaker, so maybe worth about 2 cents.

Let me save you a click, & the authors future banal efforts: utilitarian work is a global effort of freelancers. Some just have different obligations as part of their freelance work than others.

Shock. Awe.

The adjusted title is factual. 2+2=4 is factual. A title is not, because whoever created it had a purpose in mind (I'm being generous.)

Saves more than a click because it requires you to sign in to read the article.

This isn't paywalled Medium content so you can simply find the close button and click it, be it on the sliding banner or the modal.

That being said, that action does require an extra click.

It requires sign-in for me.

> To keep reading this story, create a free account.

There is an 'X' on the modal window.

Saving a click is probably an anti-goal of HN article titles.

in this case, I say it's OK

I honestly prefer a headline that tells me a bit of the main point over one that doesn't.

suggested title is 8 characters too long for submission.

on edit: changed original to suggested as being clearer.

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