If you hear some news, notice your immediate reaction. Everyone thinks the same thing, so dump that thought in the litter. Same for your second immediate reaction. The third or fourth reaction are maybe different enough to merit writing down.
But given the subject matter, I feel a reply is in order.
Maybe im missing out on being schooled on all my 'infantile, toxic' opinions but I like it better this was. Reddit, has a much stronger echo chamber as there's no way to not see constantly delayed prominently, blinking and screaming for your attention, that someone replied to you. Likely a mob here to attack your self worth just for the sake of hurting your feelings, usually provoked by any opinion that's even slightly outside/opposed to the subreddit-approved thought patterns. It trains you to be afraid to challenge the status quo (there are many people who seem to use reddit only to attack). I know HN is better than that but I cannot help feeling some anxiety after a couple specific comments from which I futilely attempted to defend myself with reason and caring conversation.
I learned my lesson
What I found most disappointing is that while I am here most for software development topics I got my karma on economic, political, geographic, Europe vs. US etc. topics.
Question is if you want to make those.
Yeah your 1 score of post / comment doesn't give your karma, but it's still show your contribution as valuable.
We begin @dang, the HN collective, the illuminati that run the internet...
Nice.
/s
Perhaps a bit of that, and perhaps a bit of a non-existent marketplace
Except you. You know Ꙭ
Edit: I just realised, heh. You cheeky fella.
Turns out another user named "fordprefect" existed and had commented on a poll from 2009, which surprised the heck out of both of us.
What I've done on reddit for throwaways is use 123123 as password so they can be reused. Not a one has gotten 'hacked' yet over months of use, I'm quite surprised tbh. Maybe I should publish the password on the relevant accounts once I decide to stop using them. Ideally there'd be a time factor before it changes hands to avoid confusion and editing old posts, but I would probably forget (hence the dummy password strategy).
Related: https://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2008/01/my_open_wirel... "It wasn't me officer" (of course IP logs... and not that I'd do anything illegal on reddit anyway no sir)
When I send a story out for beta reading, I go through and fix all the major spelling and grammar mistakes first. I shouldn’t need to, but people get hung up on the spelling and don’t see the story.
It’s the same with rants. People see the anger and frustration and miss the argument being presented.
You can argue people should look past the emotion and consider the logic. I’d agree. And I do my best to do that myself. But the reality is many people won’t. I choose to be pragmatic and rewrite any rant more carefully so I’m heard. Or I delete it because it doesn’t add meaningfully to the conservation.
Also, some controversial topics are the result of irreconcilable beliefs. See any discussion of Apple. In those threads, people talk about things they value and other people don’t value those things. There are arguments and rants that don’t go anywhere as a result.
As a result of this observation, I approach communication deliberately. If I think a rant will be heard, I’ll let myself rant. If I don’t, I take time to think why I disagree and figure out how to phrase it in less aggressive language.
There are people who really dislike this approach for a variety of reasons. I enjoy talking to them because I don’t have to do this song and dance number.
TL;DR read the room and speak in a way you’ll be understood. :)
One good rule of thumb: people will respond to the weakest part of your argument. So instead of making it as long as possible, and addressing several unrelated points in an attempt to preempt all objections, it's best to cut out everything but the core of your message. The question I always ask myself whenever commenting here is, "is my comment strong enough?". If it isn't, I delete my comment. If there are weak parts, I prune them. It's better to leave an incomplete but strong comment, than a comment which tries to be complete but has several weak pieces.
Huh. I honestly hadn't thought of it in those terms. I usually arrive at the same result by gut feeling. This will save me a lot of time. Thanks!
Either that or I've embraced cynicism and dark humor more than I should have. Probably both.
¯\_ (ツ)_/¯
You're downvoted here because others disagree that someone that is greyed out must have said something very wrong or worthless, but that's not a very wrong or worthless opinion. Only naive, perhaps.
I try to use downvotes rarely, and only for "egregiously contravened community guidelines" not "expressed opinion I strongly disagree with"
Keep participating! Downvotes (and flags) are not generally a big deal if your overall contribution is positive
Or there was an attempt at irony by the downvoters. That sometimes happens. You discuss downvoting at your peril. <dons helmet>
The downvoting system is indeed pretty witty, in that few people can downvote, but a lot more can undo the downvotes. I can't downvote myself yet, but I do check downvoted comments and when I feel that it got downvoted by personal bias, I simply undo it.
And usually don't follow up on what happens next, so whether it gets downvoted again or not I wouldn't know. But then I don't care that much, in most cases.