
The Billionaires vs. BrandonM - classicsnoot
https://zedshaw.com/2018/03/25/the-billionaires-vs-brandonm/
======
geoffpado
This post seems to be based on the idea that dhouston was "throwing his
success in BrandonM's face", but I'm not sure I see that. dhouston is thanking
the HN community, and specifically BrandonM, in that comment. If you look at
BrandonM's response[0] (which Zed cropped), he even congratulates dhouston on
his success.

This post seems to imply conflict where none exists.

[0]:
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16661824](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16661824)

------
gus_massa
I have a very different interpretation. If dhouston didn't say anything about
that comment, someone will write a comment to remember it and quote it. If the
old comment were deleted from HN, someone will still have a copy and copy it
in that post.

Even worse it will be a partial quote, perhaps only of the first part, without
the second and third part that are more spot on. [The first one is technically
correct, but overestimate the normal user ability, so it's almost funny and is
the only one that is quoted.]

Moreover, deleting the old comment will delete the rest of the thread that has
a nice conversation between the two main characters of the story and a few
more users. Reading all the old thread make the comment more interesting.

The main problem is that it's a classic comment like

> _No wireless. Less space than a Nomad. Lame._ -CmdrTaco, Slashdot.

It's a classic comment that is impossible to erase, and perhaps it will be
quoted for centuries. I never read the full thread. Is it interesting? How
does the comment change viewed in that context?

------
throwaway2041
Someone said this in the congratulations thread, but I think the salient point
is that BrandonM's comment was upvoted highly, not that it was particularly
offensive.

Hacker News has a strong negativity bias. Most of the time the top voted
comment is a snarky takedown of the post. Especially in the earliest days of
startups, its far better to be a cheerleader on the outside than a cynic
(unless the startup is unethical). It's just so hard to build successful
companies, and so easy to dismiss things at that early stage.

And yes, I know this very comment is deeply ironic in a way

edit: thanks for down-voting me OP!

~~~
dang
In my experience it's more of a pushback or contrarian dynamic. The first wave
of comments tends to be negative as people object to the article (unless it's
particularly interesting, which is the case we hope for), and the second wave
tends to be positive as people object to the objections.

You're right about the upvoting though. Bad upvotes are a bigger problem than
bad comments. ('Bad' here means 'not helping with intellectual curiosity and
civility'). If you put that together with the pushback thing, it explains a
curious phenomenon: why at the top of so many active threads sits a comment
saying "I can't believe how negative the comments are here". It sounds self-
contradictory but it's not, because there are multiple generations of
comments. That's a pushback comment attracting a lot of pushback upvotes.

