>And I feel it's fair for someone like you on HN to accept fair criticism of their comments. I'm happy to accept the criticism, and I acknowledge that people r

>And I feel it's fair for someone like you on HN to accept fair criticism of their comments. I'm happy to accept the criticism, and I acknowledge that people replying to me are mostly correct on the facts. However, I think it would be a terrible shame to give into this feedback and refrain from using such literary devices out of fear that I might offend someone who doesn't understand the language. What really bothers is that nobody would ever tell me this stuff if I had written the comment in some other language. Are we supposed to let the English language rot simply because many people are learning it as a second language? >Except for the fact that it's a serious accusation that one does not make lightly, and so it's fair to assume no one would simply drop that in civil conversation. You make my point, it's obvious that no one would simply drop that in civil conversation so there must be a deeper meaning to it (as was immediately acknowledged in the very same comment!)