Are we approaching Reddity levels of snarkiness already?
You're right in that there's no need to enumerate all possible offenses, but still, I think the comment was not harmful enough to warrant such a strong negative response.
Inane comments aside, are you sure we're not taking things too seriously?
Is it really absolutely certain that by not sending a strong message, "condemning" any comments that are not dressed up in fancy words and complicated sentences, Hacker News would just totally fall apart?
I can say not much at all in a complicated sentence, and still get no downvotes for not contributing to a conversation.
Is there really no middle ground worth exploring, between the circle-jerk of witticisms with a few insightful and informative comments sprinkled in between that is Reddit, and the rigid, enforced seriousness of HN?
>> Inane comments aside, are you sure we're not taking things too seriously?
Why is being told that your post is not contributing considered "punishment"? There's only a single axis for people to express their vote on, and thus that's the only effective way to communicate that someone thinks something isn't contributing. Downvoting is not a personal attack (shouldn't be used as such and shouldn't be interpreted as such), but the belief is that it sufficiently sends a message that such content isn't wanted, for whatever reason (the fact that no reason is supplied is a deficiency in the system itself, having only one axis, not in the use of down votes).