You put some effort into making that list, and if I were someone who felt inspired to post links about hummingbirds, this would be a helpful list indeed, saving me some time checking previous submissions.
You're technically correct that you've linked to discussions with 0 or more comments. I appreciate your contribution.
There's a convention of posting previous discussions so people can see previous discussion. If there's no discussion and you think the links themselves are interesting, you can just post the links.
...and advertised them as "Discussions on similar submissions", where no discussion took place. Just post the links, as parent recommended, rather than making readers go through the intermediate step of clicking an HN link. And then clearly label it as "other links about hummingbirds" rather than "Discussions...". :-)
I think your critics have a point. I looked at the text of the links, then at the number of comments, and skipped all of them, because I'm mainly here for a c82 page, but I am a sucker for HN discussions. It was misleading, unless meant as a presage to the eventual discussions your linking will generate?
It's pretty much the HN convention, you can find lots of moderator and other comments about it. Posting links to previous significant discussions makes sense, posting links to links a lot less so.
did you know you can click the thread title to go to the original article? then learn something about these amazing creatures that are so much more important than humans, and then comment about it
Discussions on similar submissions:
Hummingbird Moths https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37141165 (August 15, 2023 — 3 points, 0 comments)
Why Hummingbirds Are Evil: Procrastination, Laziness and Play https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=35068319 (March 8, 2023 — 14 points, 0 comments)
Humming birds suffer if they move uphill to escape the warming climate https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=31551162 (May 29, 2022 — 3 points, 0 comments)
Hummingbirds can smell their way out of danger https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=28438202 (September 6, 2021 — 36 points, 1 comments)
Hummingbirds see colors we can’t even imagine https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=27576582 (June 20, 2021 — 3 points, 0 comments)
Ecuadorian hummingbirds chirp ultrasonic songs of seduction https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23880572 (July 18, 2020 — 20 points, 1 comments)
Hummingbirds Can See Colors We Can’t Even Imagine https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23725179 (July 3, 2020 — 4 points, 0 comments)