Yours is actually fairly typical of many SO answers. Jeff used to say on the podcast that a load of the time you get people answering basically saying "that's

Yours is actually fairly typical of many SO answers. Jeff used to say on the podcast that a load of the time you get people answering basically saying "that's not even the right question" which I actually think is one of the great things about it. But this is actually why the SO voting mechanism works. Someone coming to this question now has two useful answers sat at the top of the pile - one which directly answers the question in an exact, literal fashion, and one which says "hold on, is that the real problem? Maybe you should think about this." The rep / karma thing is only as much of an issue as you let it be as are comments from people you disagree with. There are always people who have another view (be it right or wrong) but your rep said that you were helping a whole bunch people so I'm surprised that you take one negative comment as something which should override 150+ up votes. I'd certainly say that in terms a level of grief (150:1) to me that feels more amicable and agreeable than HN can be when it gets feisty.