Mismatched Title Expectations

Users express surprise or disappointment that the article's actual content differs from what they expected based on the title, often specifying the alternative topic they anticipated.

➡️ Stable 0.5x Other
4,042
Comments
20
Years Active
5
Top Authors
#4395
Topic ID

Activity Over Time

2007
6
2008
41
2009
89
2010
125
2011
128
2012
122
2013
192
2014
207
2015
167
2016
208
2017
212
2018
203
2019
236
2020
297
2021
339
2022
345
2023
394
2024
344
2025
361
2026
26

Keywords

HTML KittyHawk thepoint.com thought going thought expecting hoping clicked did expect hoped title assumed zillow

Sample Comments

LearnYouALisp Sep 23, 2011 View on HN

Whew, I thought this was about something else.

olliej Oct 25, 2021 View on HN

This wasn’t what I expected it to be :)

That's what I thought I was going to read about before clicking through to the article! (I didn't quite remember the thing's name.)

benologist May 23, 2012 View on HN

I thought this was going to be about Mashable. :(

beardyw Oct 31, 2024 View on HN

I was hoping for something interesting.

imbnwa Dec 12, 2024 View on HN

I honestly thought that's what this was about lol

hiddencache Mar 15, 2021 View on HN

That's what I hoped it would be about...

uxcn Dec 15, 2015 View on HN

I was expecting to see a variant of this.

iaw Dec 18, 2015 View on HN

That's what I thought the article was going to be about...

BrenBarn Jan 12, 2026 View on HN

I was hoping this would be a rickroll.