Tongue-in-cheek writing is really hard to distinguish in plaintext when you play it so straight. And especially when you transitioned into it so abruptly from a

Tongue-in-cheek writing is really hard to distinguish in plaintext when you play it so straight. And especially when you transitioned into it so abruptly from a legitimate, honest answer. If your comment had contained only the facetious part more people might have picked up on it. But probably not even then since humor is often downvoted on HN so people don't expect it like they do on other sites.