HACKER Q&A
📣 nothrowaways

Which do you read first?


Do you read the link first and come back to HN comments or you do the reverse?


  👤 karaterobot Accepted Answer ✓
Link first, then if I have something to say about it, I check the comments to see whether it's been said already.

Sometimes I only read the comments, because the headline makes it sound like people's reactions will give me more information than the article itself: an example would be "Library X was updated". But in any case I will never comment without reading the article first, which I think is not an ahem, universal practice among all HN readers.


👤 karmakaze
It depends on what I think the title means and if I guess being interested in the post of discussion about the post.

Most programming/engineering content I'll read the comments first to get a sense of the level/quality of the post.

For math, science/physics, tech inventions I'll read the post first, unless I'm on my phone then the comments load and read faster on my little screen.


👤 t-3
Most of the time, if I read the article first, I never read the comments. If there are many comments, I read them to get an idea of whether the article is worth reading.

👤 brudgers
Both so yes and yes.