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Often it isn't even that. It is just that someone has made a generalization, and there is an obvious exception that everyone knows about and normal people woul

Often it isn't even that. It is just that someone has made a generalization, and there is an obvious exception that everyone knows about and normal people would just take as given, and then someone writes a one line 'toss off' reply, and rakes in the free karma. This is the utmost BS. Giving someone that puts thought, time and effort into a response a tiny bit of karma - and then having the 'correction' which involves neither time, nor effort, nor thought 10x the amount of karma indicates a couple of things: (1) Hacker News will rapidly descend into one line reply chaos where it is nigh impossible to have an interesting discussion (2) Hacker news does not value time effort and thought (3) Hacker news greatly rewards the absence of time, effort and thought How can any of those be good? (#2) is the antithesis of reasoned debate, (#3) is actively rewarding anti-intellectualism. (#1) indicates that HN is either just a poorly implemented version of Slashdot (which would be sad) or it is going to descend into diggery (which is horrifying). Put some thought into it and you might see why we have a problem with that.

jimmyjim 16y ago
I regret that my comment came off as being snippy -- indeed I was in a hurry to get to my sleep and chose not to remark on additional things. > [...] and then someone writes a one line 'toss off' reply, and rakes in the free karma. This is the utmost BS. I should hope that the HN community doesn't impulsively ascribe so much value and pride into winning some system of karmic points. I don't. I think it's a non-issue. And because of the HN interface being so sleek and minimal, we can at least afford to have a few one-liners here and there without wasting a significant amount of screen space. Lastly, I would like to point out that my comment at least was not a derisive or snide one but one of an observation/correction which I thought was worth the trouble pointing out. But, again, I do regret not supplementing my comment with more substance.
- nandemo 16y ago
  Since it was my meta-comment that spawned this sub-thread, I'd like to clarify that I don't think your comment was derisive or snide or bad. My point was that the original comment was more informative than your reply, and at that point your reply was more upvoted than the original comment.
demallien 16y ago
Whilst your three points would indeed be bad, they really don't seem to be born out by reality - this is not what we see happening on HN. Slashdot style one-liners are not common, and generally speaking fare poorly in the karma stakes. You also seem to be labouring under the misconception that the quality of a reply is proportional to its length. However, a short, pithy remark that cuts to the heart of an issue is far more valuable than a long-winded argument that makes the same point.

jimmyjim 16y ago

I regret that my comment came off as being snippy -- indeed I was in a hurry to get to my sleep and chose not to remark on additional things. > [...] and then someone writes a one line 'toss off' reply, and rakes in the free karma. This is the utmost BS. I should hope that the HN community doesn't impulsively ascribe so much value and pride into winning some system of karmic points. I don't. I think it's a non-issue. And because of the HN interface being so sleek and minimal, we can at least afford to have a few one-liners here and there without wasting a significant amount of screen space. Lastly, I would like to point out that my comment at least was not a derisive or snide one but one of an observation/correction which I thought was worth the trouble pointing out. But, again, I do regret not supplementing my comment with more substance.

nandemo 16y ago
Since it was my meta-comment that spawned this sub-thread, I'd like to clarify that I don't think your comment was derisive or snide or bad. My point was that the original comment was more informative than your reply, and at that point your reply was more upvoted than the original comment.

demallien 16y ago

Whilst your three points would indeed be bad, they really don't seem to be born out by reality - this is not what we see happening on HN. Slashdot style one-liners are not common, and generally speaking fare poorly in the karma stakes. You also seem to be labouring under the misconception that the quality of a reply is proportional to its length. However, a short, pithy remark that cuts to the heart of an issue is far more valuable than a long-winded argument that makes the same point.