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A comment on Someone Forced World Internet Traffic Through Belarus and Iceland. Parent comment

Re:Someone Forced World Internet Traffic Through Belarus and... by JoeAltmaier on Thursday November 21, 2013 @10:28AM (#6775103)
Surprisingly, tone on Hacker News matters as much as content. I write very (too) concisely. It comes off as cold and is read as snarky or boasting quite often. Then I just get critical replies about tone, which drives the conversation off the point.
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Re:Someone Forced World Internet Traffic Through Belarus and... by kbenson on Thursday November 21, 2013 @11:18AM (#6775444)
Because tone is a another channel of information, and one we've been trained to acknowledge as part of the message, even if subconsciously, all our lives.

For a very simple example, tone may convey confidence. If that confidence is in a statement that people find reasons to doubt or disagree with, depending on their own confidence they may feel more or less compelled to disagree.

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Re:Someone Forced World Internet Traffic Through Belarus and... by JoeAltmaier on Sunday November 24, 2013 @11:19AM (#6789955)
Yes. And then they project their disagreement into some negative emotion on my part; I'm being arrogant, or dismissive, or cold.
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