6 ms·

I think the people who need those abbreviations spelled out are not the target audience of the article. There is no possible way to think that PE == price to ea

I think the people who need those abbreviations spelled out are not the target audience of the article. There is no possible way to think that PE == price to earnings/physical education here and if a reader thinks that they wont understand the article anyway. e.g. hamilton helmer, power, fund 12 being a sequoia fund not a different venture firm, etc. Its OK for articles to be a short few paragraphs with a smaller audience rather than a few long pages and explain every single thing at a basic level to try reach everyone

wickedsight 1mo ago
> I think the people who need those abbreviations spelled out are not the target audience of the article. Probably. But I like reading a lot of articles I'm not the target audience for, because I like learning things. Writing it like this excludes a ton of people who might not already be insiders to become insiders. Maybe that's a choice, a way to keep knowledge away from outsiders, to feel better about knowing that people who read your article are cool like you, and that's fine. But if the goal is to educate and reach a broader audience, it isn't effective.
- shalmanese 1mo ago
  > Probably. But I like reading a lot of articles I'm not the target audience for, because I like learning things. OK, but the definition of not being the target audience is you bear that burden, not the author. If the author bore that burden, you'd be the target audience!
NooneAtAll3 1mo ago
private equity should also not be for audience here the only PE relevant to hackers is PE32 file format for exe files
- Arainach 1mo ago
  This is a site run by a venture capital firm, private equity is far closer to the target audience for HN than file formats.
- ffaccount2 1mo ago
  And privilege escalation.
ffaccount2 1mo ago
>I think the people who need those abbreviations spelled out are not the target audience of the article. I agree this is true for the economist readers, but I clicked the link thinking this was about how Dropbox (in a company) is an obvious target for privilege escalation (for red teams and hackers), which also sounds plausible and interesting. But I don't mind, after a few seconds of loading my mistake was obvious.
oliwarner 1mo ago
In the context of a economics blog, and its audience, sure! But this is being shared outside that context. Deciphering acronyms for the HN titles would seem like an okay start. There are several common use alternatives. Wouldn't hurt to be explicit.
toodlemcnoodle 1mo ago
Mild disagreement. I find this annoying -- this is a community and it's absolutely POSSIBLE to structure this headline to provide the information. HN is a community and an attitude of "if you don't get it, you're not in it" is unnecessarily toxic. Universally applying this sort of rule would apply to the queue getting cluttered up with insider jargon that pushes EVERYONE out.

wickedsight 1mo ago

> I think the people who need those abbreviations spelled out are not the target audience of the article. Probably. But I like reading a lot of articles I'm not the target audience for, because I like learning things. Writing it like this excludes a ton of people who might not already be insiders to become insiders. Maybe that's a choice, a way to keep knowledge away from outsiders, to feel better about knowing that people who read your article are cool like you, and that's fine. But if the goal is to educate and reach a broader audience, it isn't effective.

shalmanese 1mo ago
> Probably. But I like reading a lot of articles I'm not the target audience for, because I like learning things. OK, but the definition of not being the target audience is you bear that burden, not the author. If the author bore that burden, you'd be the target audience!

NooneAtAll3 1mo ago

private equity should also not be for audience here the only PE relevant to hackers is PE32 file format for exe files

Arainach 1mo ago
This is a site run by a venture capital firm, private equity is far closer to the target audience for HN than file formats.
ffaccount2 1mo ago
And privilege escalation.

ffaccount2 1mo ago

>I think the people who need those abbreviations spelled out are not the target audience of the article. I agree this is true for the economist readers, but I clicked the link thinking this was about how Dropbox (in a company) is an obvious target for privilege escalation (for red teams and hackers), which also sounds plausible and interesting. But I don't mind, after a few seconds of loading my mistake was obvious.

oliwarner 1mo ago

In the context of a economics blog, and its audience, sure! But this is being shared outside that context. Deciphering acronyms for the HN titles would seem like an okay start. There are several common use alternatives. Wouldn't hurt to be explicit.

toodlemcnoodle 1mo ago

Mild disagreement. I find this annoying -- this is a community and it's absolutely POSSIBLE to structure this headline to provide the information. HN is a community and an attitude of "if you don't get it, you're not in it" is unnecessarily toxic. Universally applying this sort of rule would apply to the queue getting cluttered up with insider jargon that pushes EVERYONE out.