3 ms·
Ask HN: Do top HN comments have a “tone” that is different from those elsewhere?
For example, given the first sentence of a top comment, would you be able to tell with high probability whether it came from HN or reddit? And if so, how?
- legrande 5y agoWhen people speak without weasel words[0] and assume the role of an expert they are taken seriously, but that's more a rhetoric and didactic tone / style of writing that you see on here. Vague statements without any backing or citations are usually frowned upon / downvoted. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Weasel_word https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Weasel_word
- mikewarot 5y agoThere's far less likely to be an off hand, low effort comment here, because they are frowned upon. At least half of the responses I write here get nuked before I hit the "add comment" button.
- cblconfederate 5y agoyes, audience is older
- krapp 5y agoUnfortunately, the top comments on both sites tend to select for low-hanging fruit and easy karma. The tone for Reddit is humor, and the tone for HN is outrage or blithe dismissal.