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That is an excellent point indeed and I agree wholeheartedly with it. Civility is essential to productive discussion anywhere. Just because I found Alex3917's c

by shiven 15y ago

That is an excellent point indeed and I agree wholeheartedly with it. Civility is essential to productive discussion anywhere. Just because I found Alex3917's comment utterly ignorant and offensive does not justify my response in the same vein. Period. if the entire point of your comment is to inform everyone else on HN that you think another HN user is unworthy of our attention, you should rethink posting the comment at all Thank you for putting my feelings into words. I wish I could have just silently down-voted what I found so offensive instead of flaming out and coming across as being uncivil, but then again, that is a privilege not yet afforded to me on HN. Clearly, a silent down-vote conveys much more than a thoughtless reply here. What I do find confounding is the pile-up on my comments, instead of any voice raised (or down-votes) to the comment that started it all! Is the messenger's tone more important than the message to folks on HN?

tptacek 15y ago
Yes. The "message" in this case is a totally pointless and off-topic digression about the liturgical significance of yoga. The meta-message we are engaged in is "how shall I conduct myself on HN to best support the norms of the community". Because one hopes you'll be contributing to discussions far more relevant and important than yoga, it's worth taking the time to explain how to better calibrate your tone.
- shiven 15y ago
  Thanks for clarifying that. I sincerely appreciate your time and attention. However, I am totally confounded by (what appears to me as) the groupthink downvoting going on even now! (that too on my comments that have nothing to do with this thread!!) So how do you (or pg) make sure that silent downvoting is applied justifiably and not just a vindictive or punitive action resulting from superficial disagreement? Or is this a non-issue on HN? And more importantly, are you aware/concerned that such actions (of maybe a few) may make newcomers (like me) see HN as unfriendly at best and nearly tyrannical at worst. (Needless to say, I should have been civil to begin with, but now this reply is on wholly another point.)

by shiven 15y ago

tptacek 15y ago

Yes. The "message" in this case is a totally pointless and off-topic digression about the liturgical significance of yoga. The meta-message we are engaged in is "how shall I conduct myself on HN to best support the norms of the community". Because one hopes you'll be contributing to discussions far more relevant and important than yoga, it's worth taking the time to explain how to better calibrate your tone.

shiven 15y ago
Thanks for clarifying that. I sincerely appreciate your time and attention. However, I am totally confounded by (what appears to me as) the groupthink downvoting going on even now! (that too on my comments that have nothing to do with this thread!!) So how do you (or pg) make sure that silent downvoting is applied justifiably and not just a vindictive or punitive action resulting from superficial disagreement? Or is this a non-issue on HN? And more importantly, are you aware/concerned that such actions (of maybe a few) may make newcomers (like me) see HN as unfriendly at best and nearly tyrannical at worst. (Needless to say, I should have been civil to begin with, but now this reply is on wholly another point.)