I agree that https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=39659092 was not a good HN comment (primarily because of the first sentence there) but you and sandspar both broke HN's rules far worse in this thread. That is why I replied to the two of you.
If you see another commenter breaking HN's rules, you're welcome to let us know either by flagging the comment and/or by emailing us at hn@ycombinator.com. But please don't respond by breaking the rules yourself ("you're an idiot").
You let the [1] comment stand and was the highest ranked when I joined discussion and yet when I used the same language your warnings and my censorship via "you're posting too fast". I rarely comment and seem to get flagged when discussing same topic, thus making me think I am also being censored especially when compared to the comment I saw first. "You're an idiot" is a valid response given what was there. Whether it breaks the rules is arbitrary.
There is no difference. You cannot have someone calling the protester an idiot and then being offended when called out using the same language. Zero difference.
In HN conversations and just about all conversations there is a significant difference and HN's guidelines express this. And the point there is not about who has a right to be offended but not filling up the thread with invective. If you thought the other comment was bad, you can just downvote it and/or flag it.
The comment was the most prominent shouldn't have been given such place. Then me calling them out is subjected to some high HN standard and I get censored, but the original commenter was allowed to stand and also comment again via a deleted comment, calling me out while I had to remain silent per the HN censorship.
Dang gets celebrated by various folks who hide behind HN standards which are selectively applied. You and anyone else trying to explain this mess is BS as I had expressed repeatedly.
>> ... but not filling up the thread with invective
Don't use the words you cannot hear yourself, otherwise the comment should have been removed and we wouldn't be discussing this.
I think the more important difference to recognize is that HN operates by its particular rules rather than, say, the rules of The International Court of Toddler Justice.
If you see another commenter breaking HN's rules, you're welcome to let us know either by flagging the comment and/or by emailing us at hn@ycombinator.com. But please don't respond by breaking the rules yourself ("you're an idiot").