
Ask HN: My article link got flagged - sharma_pradeep
Hi all,
I recently posted https:&#x2F;&#x2F;medium.com&#x2F;@pradeep_io&#x2F;7-fucking-lessons-for-designers-8bd559f078bf
on hacker news. But someone flagged this stating  following reason
&quot;The swearing adds nothing, absolutely nothing, and for me it massively detracts from any message that might be there. Others may disagree, but I don&#x27;t care. I&#x27;m flagging this. There&#x27;s a time and place for language like this, and this is neither.
&quot;<p>Well, I do not understand the point of the user who flagged this. I did not have any intention of disrespecting someone, neither the article has any such content&#x2F;implied meaning at all.
I have following questions
1. Does flagging affects reach of my future content I share here?
2. Is it ok to add the word &quot;fucking&quot; to emphasize a point?
3. What am I missing here?
======
cocktailpeanuts
> 3\. What am I missing here?

You're missing what's called "nuance". The term "Fucking" can be perfect if
you use it in just the right context to accentuate what you're trying to say
(but in most cases it doesn't work).

But in your case, you didn't use it for that purpose. You just used "fucking"
for no reason. There is no other adjective it's supporting. It's just a curse
(not an accent). Like how teenagers use the term to sound cool.

So I agree with whoever flagged you that it doesn't add anything to the
article. I actually may have read your article if it didn't have "fucking" on
the title, but i don't want to read something from someone who just curses at
me with no reason. Just a feedback.

~~~
sharma_pradeep
@cocktailpeanuts Although I have different perspective on usage of curse words
in an article but I do acknowledge and respect your opinion. I have learned
here that the curse word here can be taken for a different meaning(disrespect
of the reader, childish, comedic) while it was intended to emphasize the
points and making key takeaway memorable for the readers(e.g. "fucking talk to
the users"). People have confirmed to my point of view as well as your POV.

Considering your feedback I have written the article again and removed the
words like "fucking" and "kick-ass". To emphasize the keywords I have marked
them bold. New link: [https://medium.com/@pradeep_io/7-important-lessons-for-
a-des...](https://medium.com/@pradeep_io/7-important-lessons-for-a-
designer-834227a7f42c)

I appreciate your time giving me feedback. My guess on why we have different
opinions is the cultural differences we have. Slang probably is a lot affected
by the same. Would love to hear your further views.

~~~
cocktailpeanuts
This is not a cultural thing, it's a language thing. And it's not an opinion.
You're just using English wrong. And like I said this is all about nuance. If
you disagree with me it's your loss, because you'll keep using it wrong and
keep wondering why people get pissed off.

"Fucking talk to the users" works because "fucking" is used to embellish "talk
to the users". It's emphasizing how important the author feels it is to talk
to the users.

"Fucking advice" doesn't work because "Fucking" does not embellish advice.
You're not emphasizing any important point you're trying to make. You're just
adding "Fucking" in front of "advice". it can at best be taken as a piece of
advice on how to fuck. I don't think I need advice on how to fuck. I think I'm
good enough.

Be humble when someone points out your error when you're not good at
something. Also another rule of thumb is: good content will stand out if it's
to stand out, regardless of click-fucking-baity headlines. Just write a
fucking good content with a real substance and you're set to go.

You may want to read this to learn more about the difference:
[https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/fucking#Adjective](https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/fucking#Adjective)
and
[https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/fucking#Adverb](https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/fucking#Adverb)

~~~
sharma_pradeep
I acknowledge and respect your point of view. I have revised the article,
here's the link: [https://medium.com/@pradeep_io/7-important-lessons-for-a-
des...](https://medium.com/@pradeep_io/7-important-lessons-for-a-
designer-834227a7f42c). Do read it and let me know your feedback.

Do watch this video as well [http://www.misskyra.com/lifestyle/osho-defines-
fck-its-hilar...](http://www.misskyra.com/lifestyle/osho-defines-fck-its-
hilarious/articleshow/56016557.cms)

------
brudgers
There many other reasons for writing: general readership, personal branding,
advertising, stream of consciousness, etc. If the purpose behind writing the
piece was to engage the Hacker News community, it was ineffective. One way to
take that is as editorial feedback on the writing in terms how it met the
expectations of the intended audience.

Collin is a very experienced and respected member of the Hacker News
community. It is worth listening to him most of the time. This is almost
certainly one of those times if the intended audience was Hacker News.

Finally, it is useful to experiment with different writing techniques because
sometimes the results can vastly exceed expectations. Experiments sometimes
don't produce the hoped for results, and that's the risk.

Good luck.

~~~
sharma_pradeep
Thanks @brudgers, this puts things in perspective. I have revised the article.
I'm pretty much new to hacker news and have received valuable feedback. Will
keep experimenting more.

------
minimaxir
You're not emphasizing a point using unnecessary profanity. You are using a
swear for attempted comedic value. (and if every point is emphasized, no point
is emphasized)

Removing the profanity just makes the article a listicle which isn't good for
HN anyways.

~~~
greenyoda
To clarify a bit: When the parent comment says "isn't good for HN", he's
saying that it doesn't meet the basic criteria in the HN Guidelines of
something "that good hackers would find interesting".[1] Writing a list of
terse statements without any explanation or examples (like "the navigation and
actions should match the target user’s mental models") isn't very useful or
convincing to the reader.

Also, at the bottom of the article you say you're trying to recruit a
designer. You may want to consider what kind of message this article sends to
prospective employees.

To answer the question "does flagging affects reach of my future content I
share here?" \- No, flagging just affects a single submission (by decreasing
its prominence or killing it).

[1]
[https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html](https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html)

~~~
sharma_pradeep
Thanks @greenyoda for pitching in, I have published another one after removing
the objectionable words. [https://medium.com/@pradeep_io/7-important-lessons-
for-a-des...](https://medium.com/@pradeep_io/7-important-lessons-for-a-
designer-834227a7f42c) Does it make a better submission?

About not writing explanation, I did had the urge to write in the explanations
in the article itself. But I believe making it concise and open ended is
better for a discussion to listen to different perspectives. Please do let me
know your point of view on the same, would love to discuss more.

~~~
greenyoda
According to the Guidelines, the article itself needs to be interesting,
independent of any discussion. If the article is not interesting, people
probably won't upvote it and there will be no discussion because nobody will
see it.

~~~
brudgers
Right. That's why the number of tweets that make the front page of Hacker News
closely approximates zero.

~~~
minimaxir
That's not a good counterexample; Tweets are sometimes the canonical source of
news (which HN prefers), and news articles are just verbose blogspam of the
tweet. (I believe twitter.com is a penalized domain, which I disagree with.)

~~~
brudgers
If Twitter is penalized on Hacker News, then it might be a relevant example in
this context, i.e. the nature of Hacker News as implemented.

