As for my downvote. I had an idea of how my question would be received.
But, it was an honest question since -- and you have to agree -- the values of humor and sarcasm here are usually left at the front door. For some of us, it is hard to let go of since it is held in high regard in the real world and other internet communities.
So, I thought it was a valid question that deserved a response for those of us who are so new, that we're on the border of whether or not to completely abandon humor and snark. The appropriateness of this aspect of the HN community has been really hard to gauge, and is frankly a culture shock.
scott_s's comment was the final verification that I needed that, yes, when submitting silliness, to please be more careful.
As far as humor goes, I'm going to restate something I've said frequently around here: you're not as funny as you think you are. When a few dozen people who think they're funny try to be funny, you have a lot of noise.
Some recent examples:
http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=976321
http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=978683
I've found that humor is always acceptable in any community, but the standards and flavor can vary wildly. Unless you feel that you really have a good handle on what the community thinks is funny, it's best to avoid trying. I'm convinced that discouraging attempts at humor that are not funny is for the best in any online community. Humor should be used sparingly and skillfully.
I know what you mean by saying that attempts at humor are not welcome here. I'll see a comment that I think is pretty witty, but it has maybe 0, or less, points. I click the user, and it turns out they're respectable.
I've gotten a couple pretty well received comments in, and a few failures. So the whole point of my original comment was to eliminate an easy platform for humor.
I mean, it is pretty easy to make fun of a bad submission and I've seen a few respectable users do it. So I did it myself a couple times and had fun. But I wasn't sure if that was okay -- in the grander scheme of the community, detrimental -- which is why I asked here if it was a big deal.