Ask HN: Feasible Alternative to the MacBook Pro?

Re:Ask HN: Feasible Alternative to the MacBook Pro? by dotancohen on Monday October 21, 2019 @08:50PM (#21319270)

After thinking about it some more, I stand by my original wording. The first time that we do something - whether it be with a woman or a new server - we make mistakes. That is what I was trying to express. In no way did I say or suggest that I would do things without somebody's consent. I'm sure if somebody is out looking for examples to make then he can twist my words into meaning that, but it is very clear from the context that "against consent" was not my intention. Those people out on their witch hunt are the problem.

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Re:Ask HN: Feasible Alternative to the MacBook Pro? by dang on Tuesday October 22, 2019 @07:16PM (#21329440)

But it was not clear that it wasn't your intention. Intention doesn't explain itself, least of all on the internet where we don't have the nonverbal signals people mostly rely on for that. You can't assume that clarity of intention in your own mind translates into comparable clarity in the reader's mind. The opposite is more likely the case.

It gets worse actually. If you word your comment in a way that pattern-matches any highly-charged idea that people already have from elsewhere, they are sure to interpret you as meaning that, even if your intention was in a different place entirely. It is comparable to a smaller mass getting pulled toward a much larger mass, even if its intention was to fly elsewhere.

On a forum like HN, where we'll all responsible for taking care of the commons, the burden is on the speaker to disambiguate. To do otherwise is effectively to troll the community, and it turns out not to matter much whether someone did that intentionally or not; what matters is the effects it has.

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Re:Ask HN: Feasible Alternative to the MacBook Pro? by dotancohen on Wednesday October 23, 2019 @07:34AM (#21333496)

  > If you word your comment in a way that pattern-matches
  > any highly-charged idea that people already have from
  > elsewhere, they are sure to interpret you as meaning that

I see, thank you.

[ Parent | on HN ]