I think in a _discussion_ forum like hacker news, being contrarian can be very much adding to the discussion. That these comments end up on the top is just show

I think in a _discussion_ forum like hacker news, being contrarian can be very much adding to the discussion. That these comments end up on the top is just showing that it is appreciated by the community. It doesn't mean that _all_ comments are contrarian. IMO the line the author did not seam to make clear in his blog post, which leads to some confusion in the comment section, is that being contrarian in a _discussion_ format - where all parties agree it is a discussion - is something else entirely than being contrarian to proposals from random people in real life.