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"Be kind. Don't be snarky. Comments should get more thoughtful and substantive, not less, as a topic gets more divisive." I reject the idea that I started a fl

by harry8 7y ago

"Be kind. Don't be snarky. Comments should get more thoughtful and substantive, not less, as a topic gets more divisive." I reject the idea that I started a flame war. I felt I followed the guideline above and did it in the face of pjmlp being personal, dismissive and non-substantiative while pointing out that this was happening. I did my best but if you say I failed because he hit his mark and got a rise out of me then I accept that and apologise unreservedly. If you feel the need to ban me for this infraction then you must of course do so and I will be at peace with that decision. I am completely aware of making points with evidence that are extremely unfashionable in certain tech communities. HN at its best works well doing this as it has for me in the past. Not point scoring but actual discussion, substantiated with evidence where one can learn something. A million "+1" messages aren't worth reading after all. I'd say the same for "you're wrong" messages and "you've obviously got a personal issue" messages as we saw here. I'm assuming pjmlp got a similar message from you, possibly a stronger one? It would seem odd to me otherwise but I suppose it isn't really of any consequence.

dang 7y ago
I've posted a comment asking the other user not to be snarky in comments here, but honestly your comments went much further over the line than theirs did. By the way, it's clear that you know a lot and have a lot of experience with this topic. That's great! We want people like you commenting on what they know about. But it's necessary to keep yourself within the site guidelines while doing so—they're written the way they are from long experience with what makes internet conversations and communities workable. That doesn't make it easy. We all know how annoying it becomes when the person we're arguing with doesn't 'get it' and seems to stubbornly resist our attempts to reason with them. A lot of the time they're probably feeling the same way. The only solution is to restrain oneself, whether the other person is doing so or not. https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html

by harry8 7y ago

dang 7y ago

I've posted a comment asking the other user not to be snarky in comments here, but honestly your comments went much further over the line than theirs did. By the way, it's clear that you know a lot and have a lot of experience with this topic. That's great! We want people like you commenting on what they know about. But it's necessary to keep yourself within the site guidelines while doing so—they're written the way they are from long experience with what makes internet conversations and communities workable. That doesn't make it easy. We all know how annoying it becomes when the person we're arguing with doesn't 'get it' and seems to stubbornly resist our attempts to reason with them. A lot of the time they're probably feeling the same way. The only solution is to restrain oneself, whether the other person is doing so or not. https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html