I think this was the hardest part for me to learn: the site cares a lot about what I would describe as "tone," which is generally a good heuristic for interesting and productive discussions (but this can feel stifling for a lot of people, particularly but not exclusively minority groups in tech). Early on I definitely engaged in a manner that was less than pleasant, and the culture here seems to take a dim view of that no matter who it's coming from, which is the part I find the most impressive. I have since learned how to say what I want to say without just blowing raspberries (for the most part) and I am generally rewarded for it with interesting comments and upvotes.

> Early on I definitely engaged in a manner that was less than pleasant...

From your top-level comment, it sounds like you started when you were 15? So, um... I and a number of others don't really want to be judged by how we commented when we were 15. (In my case, not on HN - it didn't exist yet. But yeah, I was "less than pleasant" a lot of the time.)

Don't be too hard on yourself for the teen-age years.

Mostly I said a lot of inflammatory stuff when calling out sexism and racism, and was probably ignorant and worse on other subjects too. I learned relatively quickly that my assumptions about the site were incorrect.

> Don't be too hard on yourself for the teen-age years.

Just wanted to echo this and extend it for the older of us: don't be too hard on yourself for the past.