2 ms·

Please don't be a jerk or put down others' work on HN. That's not the kind of site we're trying to be. You're welcome to make your substantive points thoughtfu

by dang 10mo ago

Please don't be a jerk or put down others' work on HN. That's not the kind of site we're trying to be. You're welcome to make your substantive points thoughtfully, of course. https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/showhn.html https://news.ycombinator.com/showhn.html

mgaunard 10mo ago
Pointing out facts is not being a jerk. If you don't want feedback, don't solicit it. Also if you disapprove, modding down is enough, you don't need to start a meta-discussion thread, which is itself a discouraged practice.
- dang 10mo ago
  It depends on the context. For example, imagine telling a teenager that their face is covered in acne, or (to use an old example of pg's) telling an old person that they will die soon (https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6539403 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6539403). It's not hard to imagine contexts in which pointing out those facts would be being a jerk. There are infinitely many facts. They don't select themselves—humans do that, and we do it for reasons which are not particularly factual (https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=false&query=by%3Adang%20infinitely%20many%20facts&sort=byDate&type=comment https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=false&qu...). > If you don't want feedback, don't solicit it. If you read the lower part of https://news.ycombinator.com/showhn.html https://news.ycombinator.com/showhn.html you'll see that the site has specific rules around how to offer feedback. > you don't need to start a meta-discussion thread, which is itself a discouraged practice That's true in general. I'm a mod here (sorry if that wasn't clear) and part of my job is to post replies when people are breaking the site guidelines. You're right that such comments are off topic and tediously meta - but it's a form of out-of-band communication that is necessary for keeping the site on-kilter. If it helps at all, these comments are even more tedious to write than they are to read :)

by dang 10mo ago

mgaunard 10mo ago

Pointing out facts is not being a jerk. If you don't want feedback, don't solicit it. Also if you disapprove, modding down is enough, you don't need to start a meta-discussion thread, which is itself a discouraged practice.

dang 10mo ago
It depends on the context. For example, imagine telling a teenager that their face is covered in acne, or (to use an old example of pg's) telling an old person that they will die soon (https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6539403 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6539403). It's not hard to imagine contexts in which pointing out those facts would be being a jerk. There are infinitely many facts. They don't select themselves—humans do that, and we do it for reasons which are not particularly factual (https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=false&query=by%3Adang%20infinitely%20many%20facts&sort=byDate&type=comment https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=false&qu...). > If you don't want feedback, don't solicit it. If you read the lower part of https://news.ycombinator.com/showhn.html https://news.ycombinator.com/showhn.html you'll see that the site has specific rules around how to offer feedback. > you don't need to start a meta-discussion thread, which is itself a discouraged practice That's true in general. I'm a mod here (sorry if that wasn't clear) and part of my job is to post replies when people are breaking the site guidelines. You're right that such comments are off topic and tediously meta - but it's a form of out-of-band communication that is necessary for keeping the site on-kilter. If it helps at all, these comments are even more tedious to write than they are to read :)