Do some people avoid malware by not clicking links on social news sites?

I'd argue it's reasonable behaviour depending on how dodgy the link is, but it doesn't prevent them getting malware in general, especially if they're not careful with regards to what kind of things they are downloading.

For someone versant with the technology, the question itself is irrational. Plenty of stuff can be delivered without user interaction or with deceptive interaction.

"Avoid malware" is so innocent it almost makes me cry. The operationalized embodiment of this genuflection would be some appreciable amount of stuff will not be installed on my machine (some other way) if I don't click. It says nothing of malware which is installed on the site you're visiting or that won't be delivered some other way, but maybe that's of no concern to you. The question is: will you click on the (legitimate dialogue, maybe?) prompt (if there is one) warning you about installing something? Please decide how you will rationalize your behavior: 1) I thought it was a link on the web site; 2) I have antivirus software; 3) experts on HN said clicking / not clicking has no appreciable effect.

Let's have fun with this: that popup from your bank's site which just showed up in front of that pr0n you were watching, ordering you to check your account immediately because an unauthorized transfer has been detected? Definitely legit. You should click that. Oh yeah, definitely. It's absolutely your bank, and my name is Danny Flanagan.

You definitely should take mitigation measures, and you should be inside that OODA see -> click loop.

Aside from local security measures I preview sites through archive.ph [1] It might be a fun exercise to see if one could get the archive site to relay exploits.

[1] - https://archive.ph/

For starters, I generally don't (directly) visit other social media/news sites. Any links that make it to the top pages of HN is less likely to carry malware. I do read some subreddits but they tend to have text-only submissions or images. On rare occasion uBlock Origin will flag a link. I'm also extra careful if I happen to be using a Windows machine which I typically only use for gaming.

If not so savvy users have been burned once or twice by their poor habits of getting online and having a link shower, then yes, they'll typically blame certain areas of the web they've visited ... social media though is a good area to blame.

Somewhat related: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=34388866