6 ms·

First of all, it's a bit arrogant, to say the least, to make insinuations about someone's intentions, especially if you are such a big champion of non-BS contri

First of all, it's a bit arrogant, to say the least, to make insinuations about someone's intentions, especially if you are such a big champion of non-BS contributions : I am an independent so I have no dog in this political fight and my comment had nothing to do with anyone's political affiliation. Second, I am amused that you call it "verbal gaffe." If you want to brag about your accomplishments, you better make sure you checked your data well or else you may end up looking incompetent at the very best. If you are not sure, say so, or simply abstain from bragging. That's what I expect from a professional or anyone (who should be) concerned about his or her integrity, and Mr. Ryan is a professional politician, so I see no reason to cut him any slack. You have a high threshold of tolerance for BS when it comes to politicians, it appears, but I am afraid it comes with the price of seeing BS where it's not. My comment had to do with the integrity (be it professional or personal), which is the real issue of this thread and not some "guy who cheats at marathons" and it was your comments that turned it into some sort of political issue, and made you sound like an apologist for Mr. Ryan. This piece ("it's that the comment wouldn't have even been made if it wasn't about a politician.") is not even wrong. What are you God? You think you know everything? You made lame straw man insinuations that would offend anyone of normal IQ and then you hurry to close with "maybe it is time for me to leave" as if you wanted to prove yourself right and the issue were closed. But you are still wrong because your assumptions were never right. Sounds like a typical political "logic" to me, based on insinuations, twisting facts, and pandering to the audience. Yes, I too would like to see this place free "from that bullshit," because that's the real BS.

philwelch 14y ago
The point isn't my tolerance or intolerance towards Mr. Ryan's statements. It's that loosely-relevant political pot-shots aren't really considered valuable comments on HN. I just thought it would be helpful to tell you why your comments weren't being received well. I'm sorry it didn't come across that way. For what it's worth, even if it was Joe Biden, Justin Bieber, or Mark Zuckerberg who lied about running a sub-3-hour marathon, it still would have been a bad comment and I still would have made a similar response.
- nacker 14y ago
  Well, it appears that other people received the comment well. I thought it was fair and relevant. However, it is tedious to read threads that have been hijacked by this kind of sniping.
  - philwelch 14y ago
    Does it? It got the guy enough negative karma that he's now auto-hellbanned....
  - lotharbot 14y ago
    Dude has a net karma score of -2. That's after all the upvotes from whoever "thought it was fair and relevant". Since upvotes are easier to come by than downvotes (not everyone can downvote), this suggests the comment wasn't received well. Because philwelch is exactly right -- it simply doesn't add to the discussion. It may appear that people are mostly siding with you because nobody else has verbalized support for philwelch. That's because we HN veterans don't generally post "me-too" opinions, we just quietly upvote the guy who's right and downvote the guy who's wrong. In this case, I've chosen to break the silence because you seem like you might be willing to learn HN cultural norms. Here on HN, we ask that you not take cheap shots at politicians, religions, etc. -- even those we really don't like. It makes for boring reading. Instead, make comments that other people will come away from thinking "I learned something valuable from that".
- emini_guy 14y ago
  I am not concerned whether my comment was well received or not. I am not here to win a popularity contest. But what I am concerned about is your appalingly manipulative tactics that you used to respond to my commment by insinuating that I had some political agenda. That does not sit well with me at all and that's because I truly dislike manipulative people. Discrediting someone's point of view through insinuations (and, potentially, affecting his karma) does not make you right, but merely pandering to the crowd. Incidentally, saying "your comments" instead of "your comment" (and a brief one at that) is yet another example of how you make things up to portray people more negatively than they deserve it, quite like a skilled political operative. I am not surprised that what Mr. Ryan said was merely a "gaffe" to you. You seem to thrive on "gaffes" like that in this thread. I should probably note that I am a technical type by nature, training and occupation, and so to me as to many other technical types, "gaffes" like that are a sign of mental sloppinnes, at the very best, and that simply does not inspire confidence in people who make them and makes me wonder about their real motives. The technical fields are defined by high precision (or any precision at all) that simply does not exist in non-technical fields. I have been using the Internet for over 20 years, so I happen to have some perspective on things, and must say, regretfully, that it is the rise of the manipulative crowd that I find the greatest threat to the Internet future usefulness, including the usefulness of HN. But I doubt you care about it, so let me finish right here.

philwelch 14y ago

The point isn't my tolerance or intolerance towards Mr. Ryan's statements. It's that loosely-relevant political pot-shots aren't really considered valuable comments on HN. I just thought it would be helpful to tell you why your comments weren't being received well. I'm sorry it didn't come across that way. For what it's worth, even if it was Joe Biden, Justin Bieber, or Mark Zuckerberg who lied about running a sub-3-hour marathon, it still would have been a bad comment and I still would have made a similar response.

nacker 14y ago
Well, it appears that other people received the comment well. I thought it was fair and relevant. However, it is tedious to read threads that have been hijacked by this kind of sniping.
- philwelch 14y ago
  Does it? It got the guy enough negative karma that he's now auto-hellbanned....
- lotharbot 14y ago
  Dude has a net karma score of -2. That's after all the upvotes from whoever "thought it was fair and relevant". Since upvotes are easier to come by than downvotes (not everyone can downvote), this suggests the comment wasn't received well. Because philwelch is exactly right -- it simply doesn't add to the discussion. It may appear that people are mostly siding with you because nobody else has verbalized support for philwelch. That's because we HN veterans don't generally post "me-too" opinions, we just quietly upvote the guy who's right and downvote the guy who's wrong. In this case, I've chosen to break the silence because you seem like you might be willing to learn HN cultural norms. Here on HN, we ask that you not take cheap shots at politicians, religions, etc. -- even those we really don't like. It makes for boring reading. Instead, make comments that other people will come away from thinking "I learned something valuable from that".
emini_guy 14y ago
I am not concerned whether my comment was well received or not. I am not here to win a popularity contest. But what I am concerned about is your appalingly manipulative tactics that you used to respond to my commment by insinuating that I had some political agenda. That does not sit well with me at all and that's because I truly dislike manipulative people. Discrediting someone's point of view through insinuations (and, potentially, affecting his karma) does not make you right, but merely pandering to the crowd. Incidentally, saying "your comments" instead of "your comment" (and a brief one at that) is yet another example of how you make things up to portray people more negatively than they deserve it, quite like a skilled political operative. I am not surprised that what Mr. Ryan said was merely a "gaffe" to you. You seem to thrive on "gaffes" like that in this thread. I should probably note that I am a technical type by nature, training and occupation, and so to me as to many other technical types, "gaffes" like that are a sign of mental sloppinnes, at the very best, and that simply does not inspire confidence in people who make them and makes me wonder about their real motives. The technical fields are defined by high precision (or any precision at all) that simply does not exist in non-technical fields. I have been using the Internet for over 20 years, so I happen to have some perspective on things, and must say, regretfully, that it is the rise of the manipulative crowd that I find the greatest threat to the Internet future usefulness, including the usefulness of HN. But I doubt you care about it, so let me finish right here.