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just because people "CAN" doesn't mean they WILL 3 binary dimensions: - original / trite - civility / rude - correct / incorrect leading to 8 kinds o

just because people "CAN" doesn't mean they WILL 3 binary dimensions: - original / trite - civility / rude - correct / incorrect leading to 8 kinds of people 1. original, correct, civil 2. original, correct, rude 3. original, incorrect, civil 4. original, incorrect, rude 5. trite, incorrect, civil 6. trite, incorrect, rude 7. trite, correct, civil 8. trite, correct, rude 6 and 8 are acknowledged as non-issues on HN, since they get downvoted and ignored. 7 is the most destructive force of all, because trite things get automatic upvotes. So if we must have these "Tell HN" posts, we should direct our attention to people who are civil, technically correct, trite, and miss the forest for the trees. The greatest enemy of 7 is 2, and so if you outlaw rude people you outlaw 2 causing 7 to proliferate like a catchphrase on reddit. 2 may be somewhat objectionable, but since originality and correctness are higher values than civility for Hackers, their presence should be tolerated. Tptacek is arguably one of the most valuable HNers around and if 2s were suppressed he would no longer be here. 3 and 4 drive discussion and so are basically valuable. While 4 can be obnoxious and you wouldn't want to have a beer with him, at the very least his inaccurate but original sayings do simulate interesting discussion and provoke 1 and 2 to post. A lot of very tremendous posts were motivated by the horrible statements of a 4. So 4s do have a kind of value. Anyway, the worst thing this forum could do is encourage 7s and outlawing rude people would basically give the forum over to 7s. All the 1s and 3s would flee--civil people don't fight back against the invading zombie horde.

JoeAltmaier 14y ago
That's quite a lot of conclusion from a little theory. I'd like to think that civil, thoughtful people will continue regardless, maybe that's naieve. There's a space-time component to this, so like most logic diagrams it throws a monkey wrench into the works. Suppressing rude comments may actually coerce folks (like me) into trying to be more civil than they might. This can actually breed more 3's from 4s for instance.

JoeAltmaier 14y ago

That's quite a lot of conclusion from a little theory. I'd like to think that civil, thoughtful people will continue regardless, maybe that's naieve. There's a space-time component to this, so like most logic diagrams it throws a monkey wrench into the works. Suppressing rude comments may actually coerce folks (like me) into trying to be more civil than they might. This can actually breed more 3's from 4s for instance.