> As long as you can form a constructive, useful comment, your post will sit right next to people who make insane amounts of money, and be regarded equally based on its own merits.
I agree that HN is pretty much the best place on the web for this kind of thing, but I think we can still do better to reduce the number and degree of 'hostile disagreements'. I would like to see us debate charged topics a bit more objectively and constructively and with the genuine desire to understand other points of view. On the other hand, posting here has taught me a lot about how to structure comments to head-off the obnoxious / predictable / low-value responses while still being able to find a fair number of good-faith participants (which isn't to say 'people who agree with me', but rather 'people who can constructively disagree or even challenge my logic when they agree with my conclusion').
I agree that HN is pretty much the best place on the web for this kind of thing, but I think we can still do better to reduce the number and degree of 'hostile disagreements'. I would like to see us debate charged topics a bit more objectively and constructively and with the genuine desire to understand other points of view. On the other hand, posting here has taught me a lot about how to structure comments to head-off the obnoxious / predictable / low-value responses while still being able to find a fair number of good-faith participants (which isn't to say 'people who agree with me', but rather 'people who can constructively disagree or even challenge my logic when they agree with my conclusion').