Ask HN: Which do you read on HN first (article or comments)?
Depending on the title of an article, I can sometimes guess the opinion of the author and so I'm more interested in the HN commentary. If the article is something I know very little about, I will read that first.
Comments
You may be interested in some previous submissions of this question and the evolution of the replies over time:
1533 days ago : http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=145261 : 5 comments
1240 days ago : http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=429802 : Many comments
974 days ago : http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=861970 : A poll with 17 votes
8 days ago : http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4031889 : 5 comments
I'm sure there are more, my search used specific terms to reduce the number of items returned.
thanks for the helpful round-up.
It varies depending on whether or not I know the source (Hacker News displays the domain from which the link comes) and the subject of the article. Sometimes I read the article first, if I know the source is reliable or if I know I am interested in the subject, and sometimes I read the comments first to figure out if other HN participants, more knowledgeable than I am about the subject, think the article's treatment of the subject is worthwhile or not.
Comments, to see if the article is worth reading.
It's not uncommon to find an article that is little more than some glib anecdotal observation and all the interesting content is in the comments.
Article, to see what it's about, before getting into the debate/discussion.