We changed the title from "Cairo Is Dead", which is a phrase from the email, to a perhaps more representative phrase from the email. (shortened to fit HN's 80 char limit)
Have you ever considered increasing the title character limit slightly? The current limit can have quite a constraining effect on some titles, sometimes to the detriment of the thread.
It's true, but any limit will have a constraining effect on some titles. We have to weigh that against other concerns like the visual proportions of the front page and the site value of economy of expression.
Having worked with thousands of HN titles over the years, it's amazing how rarely the 80 char limit really gets in the way. It's nearly always possible to make a good title fit, without resorting to weird abbreviations or other gimmicks. So I see it as one of those constraints that serves creativity.
You can see this in the OP actually. The direct quote is:
Is there still somebody around in the cairo community who is willing and able to make a release?
...which is 96 chars. The shortened version seems clearly better as a title, and all I did was take out some redundancies (or, if you prefer, some subtleties that are superfluous in a title).
Edit: if anyone's wondering why so much attention on a mere title - I used to wonder that too, but titles turn out to be a much deeper issue for the site than they at first seem:
