On: New Hacker News Guideline: Avoid Gratuitous Negativity

[DanBC]

> This is about me not wasting time on people. It has nothing to do with respect or disrespect.

Your first flagged comment says:

> I'm quick to write off people and I won't apologize for it. I have better things to do with my time than to give everyone the same amount of time and respect.

So people think it's about respect because you explicitly said it was about respect.

[mreiland → DanBC]

ok, fair enough, I did say that. I guess my point is that the word is too broad and that isn't how I meant it.

They're not important enough in my life for me to spend my time worrying about. Or maybe I should say I don't get emotionally involved in anything they say at that point. They live in whatever bubble they live in and it has nothing to do with me.

And that some might consider it respect that I simply let them have whatever opinion they want.

[DanBC → mreiland]

I'm genuinely confused.

When someone makes an idiotic comments the options are:

i) ignore them

ii) call them an idiot

iii) explain why they're wrong

All these new guidelines are askig you avoid is ii). This thread has a few other people saying that criticism is valuable. But the guidelines are not asking people to stop giving criticism! They're just asking people to avoid either needless negativity or personal negativity.

You can still, if you wish, destroy bad ideas while staying firmly within the guidelines.

[mreiland → DanBC]

I specifically replied to a comment roughly stating that part of the issue with HN is people who choose option i) by stating I choose option i) and I do it fairly quickly because I have better things to do with my time than give everyone an equal share of both my time and my respect.

I don't want to explain why someone is wrong, they don't care. Do you know how often I've corrected someone online and had them not deny the problem?

Not often enough for me to spend my time worrying about it.