The guidelines are linked at the bottom of every page, and directly underneath the comment box on new accounts. I also, perhaps surprisingly, know how to google "hn guidelines". Or ask chatgpt. Or reply "where's that piece of information from?".
>I think that's a doubly reasonable thing to do, given that your account is new, too.
People link the guidelines and, like, wikipedia to accounts that are 10 years old with 30,000 karma. It's a weird quirk of HN.
If you're talking to someone in real life, or professional emails, or whatever and you provide citations for commonly known things/definitions/etc.... you're being condescending.
If you're commenting on a public forum and you provide citations for commonly known things/definitions/etc., you're supplying the source of your claims for people who may be unaware. You are not the only reader of their comment (nor this one), even if it is in direct reply to yours.
[1] https://www.dictionary.com/browse/no [2] https://www.dictionary.com/browse/you [3] https://www.dictionary.com/browse/are [4] https://www.dictionary.com/browse/being [5] https://www.dictionary.com/browse/condescending
Assuming everyone is an idiot who a) doesn't know something common and b) isn't able to figure out how to google it and c) isn't able to figure out how to say "where's that from?" in a reply is condescending [6].
> Assuming everyone is an idiot who a) doesn't know something common and b) isn't able to figure out how to google it and c) isn't able to figure out how to say "where's that from?" in a reply
These things were neither assumed nor implied.
Or, … they're just citing the source for the information, so that, in case you aren't aware as to where to find them, now you are.
I think that's a doubly reasonable thing to do, given that your account is new, too.