I take the approach that HN conversations are for a very wide audience, so signal-to-noise ratio is important. Chatty comments, which may be fine in smaller for

I take the approach that HN conversations are for a very wide audience, so signal-to-noise ratio is important. Chatty comments, which may be fine in smaller forums where people know each other better, end up just looking like extra noise here. I like comments that add to the discussion and aren't gratuitously argumentative. Comments on spelling are only productive when spelling errors actually make it significantly harder to understand something. This wasn't the case with the message you commented on.