Comment by javawizard

15 hours ago

I wonder if that was an automated HN edit?

Similarly to how titles that start with "how" usually have that word automatically removed.

Usually HN only auto-edits on first submission. If you go in and undo it manually as the submitter, you can force it to read how you intend.

  • Maybe I'm only noticing the times when it messes things up, but it kinda seems like these auto-edits cause a lot of confusion that could be avoided if they were shown up-front to submitters, who would then have the option to undo them.

    Or maybe judicious use of an LLM here could be helpful. Replace the auto-edits with a prompt? Ask an LLM to judge whether the auto-edited title still retains its original meaning? Run the old and new titles through an embedding model and make sure they still point in roughly the same direction?

  • oh interesting, TIL I can go edit my submission titles! That's useful, I've definitely submitted stuff and gotten a less-good title due to the automated fixes, so I'll have to pay attention to this next time