Someone who has a strong opinion and defends it?
Someone whose basis for their strong opinion you’ve deemed woefully insufficient?
Someone who doesn’t change their strong opinion when presented with a dozen comments against it and a similar number for it?
That the commenters are divided on my opinion isn’t toxic: it demonstrates it’s an issue with Reddit that’s affected at least half of us and left us annoyed, ashamed, or slighted.
If my behavior is problematic, then why is it only problematic on Reddit? On HN, when someone disagrees with me they don’t reach for any -ist words to describe me: they disagree with the comment on its own merits.
What does “problematic” even mean, other than that it’s bad and I should feel bad?
We are not building medical devices here. I’m not interviewing to be on your team in a work environment.
This is an example of the kind of topic that is interesting to discuss casually on HN with other hackers.
And the benefit of HN, unlike Reddit, is that disagreeing with someone doesn’t also turn them into a cartoon villain who must be vanquished. People here are allowed to be wrong without also being -ists or assholes.
Here’s what I was originally responding to.
> Does it seem to you like the kind of person you’re interacting with is reasonable here but unreasonable to the point of group toxicity elsewhere? Or that I'm unreasonable here?
This isn’t an ad hominem attack. He asked for a judgment on his personal behavior.
I answered yes. As someone who has built communities online and in the real world, you are someone that, at best, needs careful management. I wouldn’t willingly include you in a team or community. I’ve done life or death stuff with the teams I built, I’m pretty good at this.
From reading through here plenty of other people think similarly. You are more willing to argue than you are to hear that your behavior is problematic. Even after asking specifically, and being told so.
You are exceptionally talented at this. You have literally dozens of people bickering. Congrats.
Unambiguously, I consider you toxic.