As much as I feel that HN's tone policing is de facto defence of status quoism, guidelines here are that direct personal attacks aren't permitted. However you

As much as I feel that HN's tone policing is de facto defence of status quoism, guidelines here are that direct personal attacks aren't permitted. However you may be pleased to know that ideological battle isn't either. If you can't find a suitably witty or effective response, none is often better. You don't have to attend every argument you're invited to. You can also email mods at hn@ycombinator.com with issues. I do this frequently on all manner of points, most often title or URL issues, but other guidelines violations as well, and often that results in accounts being banned. As dang has said many times, you can't attack others no matter how wrong they are (<https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=true&query=by%3Adang%20no%20matter%20how%20wrong&sort=byPopularity&type=comment https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=true&que...>), and provocation itself isn't a justification to violatue guidelines yourself (<https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=true&query=by%3Adang%20violate%20guidelines%20regardless&sort=byPopularity&type=comment https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=true&que...>) and <https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=true&query=by%3Adang%20don%27t%20respond%20by%20breaking%20guidelines&sort=byPopularity&type=comment https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=true&que...>). Trust me that this can be sorely aggrevating and crossing the lines tempting, but you'll ultimately be a more persuasive and effective advocate working within the rules here.