3 ms·

If you look at my comment history think I have stuck to facts and been impersonal. Only transgression was when allegations were made by your parent poster that

by srean 6y ago

If you look at my comment history think I have stuck to facts and been impersonal. Only transgression was when allegations were made by your parent poster that I called a million Hindu's a terrorist. That's a ridiculous and defamatory claim. I think I am allowed to ask for clarifications or contest it when words are put in my mouth

dang 6y ago
You haven't just stuck to facts and been impersonal—you perpetuated the flamewar along with others. For example, swipes like "Yeah keep spreading lies" (https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25979836 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25979836), "You are just trying to avoid answering" (https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25979695 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25979695), and so on, are completely unacceptable here. It's all too easy to assume that you're following the rules when you aren't—we all suffer from this, because we have our own good intentions in mind when commenting. But those intentions don't communicate themselves, and when you're arguing, your comments are likely to come across as 10x more aggressive (if not 100x!) as they felt to you. It's as if, when sparring, people land punches much harder than they think they do. You don't feel it that way, but the other person sure does—and then they land a punch back that feels (to them) like it's about equal, but feels to you like it's 10x harder—and suddenly there's a brawl in which everyone feels like the other person started the conflict and escalated it, while they themselves are merely reacting. In reality, both are doing it, and both are subject to the same cognitive bias that makes it feel like we're the innocent one and they're the guilty one. For this reason it's super important to err on the side of scrupulously editing swipes and aggressive language out of your comments, especially on divisive topics. As the guidelines say: "Comments should get more thoughtful and substantive, not less, as a topic gets more divisive." https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html Even if your intent is good, the burden is on you as an internet commenter to disambiguate your intent for the reader. https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=false&sort=byDate&type=comment&query=disambiguate%20burden%20by:dang https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=false&so...
- srean 6y ago
  Thanks for the reasoned response. Certainly things for me to ponder about. I wouldn't belabor the points. Not sure how to call out lies and unfounded allegations such as "you called a million Hindus a terrorist". Unfortunately a section of a society just thrives on propagating the identity of a hurt majority -- they back stabbed Hindus, they called Hinduism names etc etc. History shows us that this is very dangerous. I am not to sure that keeping them uncontested is a good idea. Will have to find better and measured language to contest those.

by srean 6y ago

dang 6y ago

You haven't just stuck to facts and been impersonal—you perpetuated the flamewar along with others. For example, swipes like "Yeah keep spreading lies" (https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25979836 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25979836), "You are just trying to avoid answering" (https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25979695 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25979695), and so on, are completely unacceptable here. It's all too easy to assume that you're following the rules when you aren't—we all suffer from this, because we have our own good intentions in mind when commenting. But those intentions don't communicate themselves, and when you're arguing, your comments are likely to come across as 10x more aggressive (if not 100x!) as they felt to you. It's as if, when sparring, people land punches much harder than they think they do. You don't feel it that way, but the other person sure does—and then they land a punch back that feels (to them) like it's about equal, but feels to you like it's 10x harder—and suddenly there's a brawl in which everyone feels like the other person started the conflict and escalated it, while they themselves are merely reacting. In reality, both are doing it, and both are subject to the same cognitive bias that makes it feel like we're the innocent one and they're the guilty one. For this reason it's super important to err on the side of scrupulously editing swipes and aggressive language out of your comments, especially on divisive topics. As the guidelines say: "Comments should get more thoughtful and substantive, not less, as a topic gets more divisive." https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html Even if your intent is good, the burden is on you as an internet commenter to disambiguate your intent for the reader. https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=false&sort=byDate&type=comment&query=disambiguate%20burden%20by:dang https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=false&so...

srean 6y ago
Thanks for the reasoned response. Certainly things for me to ponder about. I wouldn't belabor the points. Not sure how to call out lies and unfounded allegations such as "you called a million Hindus a terrorist". Unfortunately a section of a society just thrives on propagating the identity of a hurt majority -- they back stabbed Hindus, they called Hinduism names etc etc. History shows us that this is very dangerous. I am not to sure that keeping them uncontested is a good idea. Will have to find better and measured language to contest those.