HN has really impressed upon me the value of site loading speed - one big reason I often check the comments first is that _they're there instantly_, whereas clicking on the actual link is a bit of a crapshoot! It's surprising how influential that difference is.

Absolutely! I love the minimalist design of HN. Hope they never pull a reddit and update their design to be 'modern'.

I frequently don't follow the link unless the comments make me intrigued enough to do so. Partly because of the typically high signal/noise ratio for top comments here, and partly because of the ubiquity of paywalls, popups, horrible design and other JavaScript-heavy forms of user-hostility (or at least non-friendly or misguided) one finds in the average website.

The simplicity of presentation on Hacker News is one of its defining virtues.

Speaking of simplicity, the minimal amount of JS that Hacker News does use is worth a look for anybody who hasn't yet:

view-source:https://news.ycombinator.com/hn.js

I go through the front page and right click open new tab the link to the comments section for all the stories that seem interesting. Then I go through each tab, see if the comments are interesting, and only then do I click on the article.

I find the comments and discussion often provide far more value compared to the actual articles. Especially when it comes to links about health. Lots of pseudoscience out there and very grateful for the knowledgeable community to shed light on it when it shows up.

+1 and I’m greatful for dang and the moderation team for making it a great community to discuss and share ideas and opinions that I would never would have come across otherwise. Thank you.

> Does anyone else check the comments before following the link? The perspectives shared here are a valuable part of my information diet.

Almost always. A quick scan often tells me whether the article is worth reading or not: topic and quality.

I hold off on responding to anything until I have read the article, though.

I rarely read the link and I always read all the comments. Often you can tell if the article is actually worth it in the process

same here, and I even usually scan the front page for the most commented links when I'm in a hurry!

Yup, I use TreeStyleTabs and the Open in New Tab Extension set to this domain.

That way, the root page is the main page, the comments are children and the link and other links from the comments are children of it's comments page

wow, TreeStyleTabs looks great.

Honestly I’ve always gone comments first then go down some rabbit hole after five comments of tangents

I too seldom go to the article 1st. The comments are usually far better.

Thankful for HN and all of you!

!! I thought I was the only one. :D