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> But I really dislike the author’s strident writing style. Colorful and emotional language gets attention. Dispassionate writing doesn't. Whenever I see peop
by quotemstr 5y ago
> But I really dislike the author’s strident writing style.
Colorful and emotional language gets attention. Dispassionate writing doesn't. Whenever I see people criticize an author for a little rhetorical flair, I play the famous "Pirates of the Caribbean" scene in my mind:
Hacker News: "Your article is the most strident and obnoxious piece of technical writing I've ever heard of"
Author: "Ah, but you have heard of it!"
- snet0 5y agoI think this is a popular narrative, but I don't think it's true. Especially in HN, some of the best articles I can remember aren't angry people being obnoxious, but can even be highly-technical and entirely dispassionate. Also, I am not sure people do remember these types of articles. Perhaps they remember some notion of the content, but I'm doubtful many detractors would remember the author.
- permo-w 5y agomy ideal article tells me everything I need to know in simple language, without meander or emotion. that’s rare even here
- Moodles 5y agoYeah clickbait sells, but I’m saying if there’s a single error, combined with the emotional tone, I’m more likely to discount the whole article and think they’re just extremely biased and blinded by their emotions.
- permo-w 5y agothis is one of the major problems with the current media landscape. all publicity is good publicity. look at Trump. look at the Paul brothers. HN is one of the few safe harbours from that. personally, I’d like to keep it that way