If a user complains about a title being baity and they have a point, we tend to change the title on the grounds that many other readers probably feel the same way.
This was a borderline case but I think they had a small point that 'hacked' was a bit baity. Also, the GP comment was heavily upvoted, indicating that a lot of users agreed.
But they don’t: the usage of “hack” in the title was squarely within the original definition of “to hack” (for instance, it’s covered by definition 6 in the Jargon File if we accept [as is generally done in hacker culture] that such hacks aren’t restricted to computer usage). In non-technical usage the term “hack” tends to mean something else but given that HN literally has “hacker” in its title, shouldn’t we accept correct usage of the word on this site, even if it doesn’t fall outside its non-technical mainstream definition?
Speaking as a biologist, the usage of “hack” in the title is completely idiomatic within the field (compare: “genome hacking”). The claim that this usage is bait is simply factually incorrect.
> Also, the GP comment was heavily upvoted
On the contrary, it was downvoted (greyed out) at the time the title was changed. It’s now back to black.
The baitiness comes from the over-use of the word in headlines. I don't disagree with you but unfortunately accuracy is not the only concern.
Re the GP comment, I was referring to https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19299892, which was always upvoted and quickly reached a high positive score. When users are expressing an allergic reaction like that, we've learned that it's best to just yield. A modified title can be just as accurate and usually reduces inflammation.
That said, I think your argument is at least as persuasive. We did the standard moderation thing in this case because, as I said, it's proved to be globally optimal. But it doesn't seem to have been locally optimal here.
This was a borderline case but I think they had a small point that 'hacked' was a bit baity. Also, the GP comment was heavily upvoted, indicating that a lot of users agreed.