I don't mean to scold, but I understand that it comes across as pedantry. It's hard to give good advice in a tone that isn't paternalistic, and I should get be

I don't mean to scold, but I understand that it comes across as pedantry. It's hard to give good advice in a tone that isn't paternalistic, and I should get better at doing that. Sometimes you just want to ask a genuine question without somebody questioning your phrasing. What prompted me to give out advice is "Feel free to downvote but please answer". I don't believe the comment deserves a downvote, but I assume (and it may be, as you put it, reading too much into it) that some downvotes come from people who are tired of seeing the attitude I describe in my reply (https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7650799#7651343 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7650799#7651343). It's a case of greedy matching /why would you do/.