I have frequently seen a thread begin with ill-informed, substanceless dismissal, and then turn around and produce a well-reasoned and informative discussion. That's one of the reasons I visit HN regularly, but not any other discussion site.
Whenever I comment here, I usually consider a bunch of different factors:
Is my comment necessary? Will it teach anybody anything? Did somebody else already make my point?
All in all, I try my hardest _not_ to comment. As a general rule, I won't participate in communities that value one-liners. A basic respect for thought is enough to make one community far better than another.
Just today I was over-listening a conversation about body hair that essentially amounted to "hair is there for protection," and all I could think was "what does that mean? What 'protection'? Do you even know what you're talking about?" It seems like the _entire_ point of that conversation was to find something to laugh about, and that the thoughts didn't even matter. They could have talked about anything. As soon as laughs were had, subjects changed.
Comments
I have frequently seen a thread begin with ill-informed, substanceless dismissal, and then turn around and produce a well-reasoned and informative discussion. That's one of the reasons I visit HN regularly, but not any other discussion site.
Whenever I comment here, I usually consider a bunch of different factors:
Is my comment necessary? Will it teach anybody anything? Did somebody else already make my point?
All in all, I try my hardest _not_ to comment. As a general rule, I won't participate in communities that value one-liners. A basic respect for thought is enough to make one community far better than another.
Just today I was over-listening a conversation about body hair that essentially amounted to "hair is there for protection," and all I could think was "what does that mean? What 'protection'? Do you even know what you're talking about?" It seems like the _entire_ point of that conversation was to find something to laugh about, and that the thoughts didn't even matter. They could have talked about anything. As soon as laughs were had, subjects changed.