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I downvote any comment containing the word "fanboy", and I encourage my fellow readers to do the same.
by neutronicus 15y ago
I downvote any comment containing the word "fanboy", and I encourage my fellow readers to do the same.
- dasil003 15y agoI'm voting you up. "Fanboy" is the most destructive meme to rational discourse ever to emerge on the Internet. In a single word we reduce any debate to YouTube-style mudslinging. The concept of "fanboy" has some limited utility in that people do clearly blind themselves to flaws in products (or ideologies!) in order to avoid cognitive dissonance and protect their own identity, but any tiny value in expressing this concept is overwhelmed by the destructive nature of its use in discourse. The fact is everyone has blind spots, and "fanboy" is just shorthand for "your opinion is meaningless noise, but I'm going to respond to it anyway with my own meta noise." Furthermore, the word is most often used by people who are equally as irrational as the one they are accusing. Downvoting any comment calling someone else a "fanboy" is a good idea, and I think one concrete action that can help HN if only in a small way.
- jrockway 15y agoI suggest we use the word "lemming" instead. If someone is willing to walk off a cliff to obtain a new phone, it seems like the right word to use. Also, you can press that button at the bottom of the screen and they all blow up.
- dasil003 15y agoinstead. in-stead. Okay, if you absolutely must go ad-hominem then I suppose "sheep" or "lemming" is less vapid. But seriously this sentiment is way overused.