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> Why didn’t I just travel the world, ride my motorcycle, tinker with my robots, hang out at my bakery with friends and family. Was Andy a douche before he got

• dang 9y ago
  Personal attacks will get you banned on HN, so please don't do this again. It doesn't matter if the other person is rich or even if they deserve it; what matters is that it poisons the community, and we don't want that.
  • m-j-fox 9y ago
    Dang, you have a lot of rules that you enforce but don't write down. Any criticism could be called an attack and everyone is a person so you're being arbitrary. My stance is that I'm doing some guy who refers to "my engineers" like they're his royal subjects, the favor his copy editor should do him in letting him know how aragance plays with the audience. I'm arbitrarily enforcing our culture's unwritten sanction against humble bragging and general douche baggery. Basically, what you do.
    • dang 9y ago
      Interpretation is always involved, but that doesn't make it arbitrary. Everything we do as moderators follows from the principles of the site—intellectual curiosity and civil, substantive discussion. > don't write down It's impossible to write everything down, it would be boring to try, and the reward for such foolishness would be even worse behavior. The commenters who most poison internet forums are experts in adapting to rules so they're technically not violating them. > I'm arbitrarily enforcing our culture's unwritten sanction Sure, there are many such values and there are tradeoffs between them. In this case the need to protect the commons takes precedence, because it's fragile and worth protecting. There were other ways to make the substantive point behind your comment.