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Its sad that this is the top comment. When I visit European sites I don't demand they change things just for me. Maybe be more of a gracious visitor?

briandear 11y ago
Why is this being down voted? It is true. When British sites spell things with superfluous letters (colour, for instance,) should HN readers demand that they change it to the more efficient spelling? American English is spoken natively by more people in the world than British English, so therefore must we banish British English from these pages? Of course not. We could argue that the US has the largest number of visitors to HN than any other country. HN is an American site. YC is an American organization. Thus, those not comfortable with American conventions really ought to get over it. The United States has the world's largest economy, according to the IMF, World Bank and UN. So obviously the US is doing something right. Perhaps the rest of the world ought to adopt American conventions. I say that in jest, but the point is that criticizing the American way of doing things is a popular sport, yet at the end of the day, the American system has resulted in an economic output greater than Germany, the UK, France and Italy combined. The EU has a per-capita GDP of $36,779 and the US is at $54,601. So apparently something is working with the American way of doing things. Just because "the rest of the world" does it doesn't make it better. This whole idea that the American way of doing things is somehow inferior is just as ridiculous as the British/French rivalry. The fact that the parent comment is the top comment is ridiculous. It's a petty thing about which to complain and adds nothing to the discussion. In fact, the parent comment ought to be down voted for being absolutely irrelevant to the posting in question.
- mark-r 11y ago
  I worked for a company that did a special translation of its software from American English to British English alongside the other languages they did. The Brits loved it, although they were mystified by the pricing - it cost them in Pounds as much as it cost the US customer in Dollars.

briandear 11y ago

Why is this being down voted? It is true. When British sites spell things with superfluous letters (colour, for instance,) should HN readers demand that they change it to the more efficient spelling? American English is spoken natively by more people in the world than British English, so therefore must we banish British English from these pages? Of course not. We could argue that the US has the largest number of visitors to HN than any other country. HN is an American site. YC is an American organization. Thus, those not comfortable with American conventions really ought to get over it. The United States has the world's largest economy, according to the IMF, World Bank and UN. So obviously the US is doing something right. Perhaps the rest of the world ought to adopt American conventions. I say that in jest, but the point is that criticizing the American way of doing things is a popular sport, yet at the end of the day, the American system has resulted in an economic output greater than Germany, the UK, France and Italy combined. The EU has a per-capita GDP of $36,779 and the US is at $54,601. So apparently something is working with the American way of doing things. Just because "the rest of the world" does it doesn't make it better. This whole idea that the American way of doing things is somehow inferior is just as ridiculous as the British/French rivalry. The fact that the parent comment is the top comment is ridiculous. It's a petty thing about which to complain and adds nothing to the discussion. In fact, the parent comment ought to be down voted for being absolutely irrelevant to the posting in question.

mark-r 11y ago
I worked for a company that did a special translation of its software from American English to British English alongside the other languages they did. The Brits loved it, although they were mystified by the pricing - it cost them in Pounds as much as it cost the US customer in Dollars.