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nit: ad-hominem is attacking the person rather than what they’re doing or their argument, e.g. saying that someone is an idiot rather than refuting their argume
by mplanchard 5y ago
nit: ad-hominem is attacking the person rather than what they’re doing or their argument, e.g. saying that someone is an idiot rather than refuting their argument. There’s nothing ad-hominem in any of my arguments: I’m just pointing out that what you’re doing is unproductive and off-topic and giving my opinion about why you’re being downvoted.
You could and reasonably did say the same thing about my arguing with you (that it’s unproductive), but that wouldn’t be an ad-hominem attack. You’re attacking my actions, not my person.
- hu3 5y agoStill pointless and off-topic. I should have just flagged your first message and move on. We both made HN a little less great today and I feel bad.
- deleted 5y ago[deleted]
- mplanchard 5y agoI try to reserve flagging for comments and posts that flagrantly violate the HN norms, since they are likely to create work for the moderation team. I don’t feel like any of our comments in this thread rise to that level, which is why I didn’t flag (or even downvote!) your original comment or any of your comments in this thread, despite its running afoul of the HN guidelines (assume good intent, don’t engage in flamebait or off-topic controversy, don’t comment about votes), although others seem to have.