As noted by others, we don't avoid humor we avoid the obvious, the superficial, and that insidious community-killer 'the in-joke'. Throwaway lines are rarely w

As noted by others, we don't avoid humor we avoid the obvious, the superficial, and that insidious community-killer 'the in-joke'. Throwaway lines are rarely well received because they add minimal value (if any) to the conversation, which is HN's primary criteria. Where humor is well done, and adds value, I've always found it to be well received. See, for example, one of my 'highest rated' comments in a discussion about 'The Miracle of Compound Interest'. The OP (now offline, so iirc) argued in favor of higher estate taxes because compound interest over future centuries guarantees wealth would become unfairly distributed to a small number of families. I chose humor to pick holes in the theory rather than economics - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=812221 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=812221 [Edit] I realised some throwaway lines do add value, when I remembered this comment in a discussion about eating bark after the collapse of civilization received even more love than the OP - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=842857 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=842857