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Hey friend. You're 100% right for pointing out that this stuff is addressed in the paper. I think the sarcasm is a disservice to everyone, both you and the par

Hey friend. You're 100% right for pointing out that this stuff is addressed in the paper. I think the sarcasm is a disservice to everyone, both you and the parent comment included. Further, he may not have had (or may not have) the time to fully analyze the paper, and may be asking if others are aware if that specific concern is addressed, which seems like a reasonable comment.

enraged_camel 6y ago
Sorry, I don't really agree. HN is full of people who react to headlines without reading the article and the underlying materials, and in my opinion it greatly decreases the quality of discussion.
- Groxx 6y ago
  That's what downvotes are for. They're certainly not useful comments to allow to bubble up to the top.
- totetsu 6y ago
  I was reading ..somewhere.. that a person having a negative interaction on an online forum increased the likelihood of that person then going on to make a negative comment themselves 300%. When I read that HN's zealous downvotes of slightly impolite comments started to make a bit more sense to me. It's better to avoid snark and sarcasm, as fun as they are.
  - vaxman 6y ago
    If your life revolves around acceptance by HN mods, then you need to wakeup from The Matrix! Nobody wants another cesspool like /. was in its hay day, but ultimately only HackerNews/Ycombinator are harmed by this phenom of over-moderation. For example, whose brilliant idea was it to create a user community that downvotes on comments hostile to Chinese Communist Party (that aims nuclear weapons at us while supporting North Korea in every sense and planning to kill our trading partners in Hong Kong and Taiwan) or on comments brutally critical of Apple for abusive trade practices? A lot of the downvotes also come from users that are obviously very inexperienced and unable to understand subtle contexts leading one to believe that a great way to solve this “problem” would be to only allow moderation by senior members of the community, as determined by peer votes, not by account age.
    - totetsu 6y ago
      Isn't 500 karma needed to downvote? Karma might be an indicator of seniority indicated by peer vote. As for the other issues, there are ways of being highly critical without needing to be brutal.
      - vaxman 6y ago
        "peers" lol
cauthon 6y ago
Hello :) You are also 100% right that I could have been more positive and constructive. I did intend to be lighthearted rather than mean, but tone is difficult in plaintext. I see a lot of these types of comments on hn/reddit/twitter/etc, and (painting with a broad brush) the authors are typically pointing out trivial or spurious concerns, and phrasing it to cast doubt on the entire analysis. Often, the authors are asking about something that's easily searchable (here, cmd-F for "sex" will show a subsection of the methods dedicated to sex-specific effects), or naively ignoring the existing practices of the field. There are no bad questions, but there are certainly bad attitudes. I'll be the first to admit the flaws in academia, including that many papers are imperfect and many are bad, but I think the dismissive comments from authors who haven't engaged with the material are just as much a disserve to the conversation around any study. Of course, that may be another issue with tone in plaintext :)

enraged_camel 6y ago

Sorry, I don't really agree. HN is full of people who react to headlines without reading the article and the underlying materials, and in my opinion it greatly decreases the quality of discussion.

Groxx 6y ago
That's what downvotes are for. They're certainly not useful comments to allow to bubble up to the top.
totetsu 6y ago
I was reading ..somewhere.. that a person having a negative interaction on an online forum increased the likelihood of that person then going on to make a negative comment themselves 300%. When I read that HN's zealous downvotes of slightly impolite comments started to make a bit more sense to me. It's better to avoid snark and sarcasm, as fun as they are.
- vaxman 6y ago
  If your life revolves around acceptance by HN mods, then you need to wakeup from The Matrix! Nobody wants another cesspool like /. was in its hay day, but ultimately only HackerNews/Ycombinator are harmed by this phenom of over-moderation. For example, whose brilliant idea was it to create a user community that downvotes on comments hostile to Chinese Communist Party (that aims nuclear weapons at us while supporting North Korea in every sense and planning to kill our trading partners in Hong Kong and Taiwan) or on comments brutally critical of Apple for abusive trade practices? A lot of the downvotes also come from users that are obviously very inexperienced and unable to understand subtle contexts leading one to believe that a great way to solve this “problem” would be to only allow moderation by senior members of the community, as determined by peer votes, not by account age.
  - totetsu 6y ago
    Isn't 500 karma needed to downvote? Karma might be an indicator of seniority indicated by peer vote. As for the other issues, there are ways of being highly critical without needing to be brutal.
    - vaxman 6y ago
      "peers" lol

cauthon 6y ago

Hello :) You are also 100% right that I could have been more positive and constructive. I did intend to be lighthearted rather than mean, but tone is difficult in plaintext. I see a lot of these types of comments on hn/reddit/twitter/etc, and (painting with a broad brush) the authors are typically pointing out trivial or spurious concerns, and phrasing it to cast doubt on the entire analysis. Often, the authors are asking about something that's easily searchable (here, cmd-F for "sex" will show a subsection of the methods dedicated to sex-specific effects), or naively ignoring the existing practices of the field. There are no bad questions, but there are certainly bad attitudes. I'll be the first to admit the flaws in academia, including that many papers are imperfect and many are bad, but I think the dismissive comments from authors who haven't engaged with the material are just as much a disserve to the conversation around any study. Of course, that may be another issue with tone in plaintext :)