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I apologize, in retrospect my comment was definitely inappropriate. I'm actually not sure which part of my comment was a personal attack, though. I think my fi
by laughinghan 11y ago
I apologize, in retrospect my comment was definitely inappropriate.
I'm actually not sure which part of my comment was a personal attack, though. I think my first paragraph was a factual refutation of the parent's main point, I assume you're talking about the second paragraph?
Was it "dick-measuring contest"? Though vulgar, I don't think anyone would call it a personal attack, I think it's understood [1] as the valid critique that the parent is judging people and arguments based on meaningless superficial criteria.
[1]: https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/dick-measuring_contest https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/dick-measuring_contest
Was it "Are you a serious contributor to anything with >50 stars?", which could be interpreted out-of-context as implying they're unaccomplished? I think it's clear from context that I don't believe in judging people by their GitHub, in fact it's one of the main ways my comment was disagreeing with its parent. Unless pointing out hypocrisy is a personal attack?
- dang 11y agoThanks for being open about this. What made me think the comment was a personal attack was the combination of hostile sarcasm (not just "reflexive dick-measuring", but also "feel free") with introducing personal details. It's always risky to bring in new personal details about someone into a thread, but if the context makes it clear that it's being done with good will, it can be ok. If the context is hostile, though, that's basically never good. We're all hypocrites. The points one scores by digging up dirt to rub someone's nose in aren't worth the damage it does to the social fabric—at least in a place like HN where we care a lot about cohesion and it is always fragile.
- laughinghan 11y agoYou're right, of course. Thanks for calling me out.