"One last thing, those IDs aren't sequential, they're just unique. If you increment a HN news article URL you'll probably end up in a comment (because articles are just root comments), or on other sites, a deleted/spam submission. Sequential only works for content that doesn't change, and most content changes."
Same kinda thing in StackOverflow, everything is a "post", regardless of whether it's a question or answer, for example:
...it takes you to that "post" which happens to be an answer.
With regards to the parent question, I wouldn't object to seeing human readable slugs. I have a stash of HN article links hived away in OneNote, you be handy not to have to manually type in a description of what the article was about.
Same kinda thing in StackOverflow, everything is a "post", regardless of whether it's a question or answer, for example:
Consider this answer:
http://stackoverflow.com/a/22884084
If I change the url to replace "a" with "q":
http://stackoverflow.com/q/22884084 or do http://stackoverflow.com/questions/22884084
...it takes you to that "post" which happens to be an answer.
With regards to the parent question, I wouldn't object to seeing human readable slugs. I have a stash of HN article links hived away in OneNote, you be handy not to have to manually type in a description of what the article was about.