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sol_invictus | 4 years ago

Serious question: do people want HN to turn into a safe space then? I always preferred the blunt tone of the forum, because in practical terms you can flesh things out faster that way, and anyway it's literally pixels on your computer - they can't physically hurt you. Hell I'm even guilty of fanning the flames further sometimes, but again I always thought it's part of the conversational culture here in order to gauge every possible angle to a subject as effective as possible.

I certainly don't want the "forced nice" tone being policed here. It will likely kill the entire charm of HN.

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throw10920|4 years ago

As a complement to your points - it's worth pointing out that "blunt" != "intentionally rude" / "personal/character attacks".

I've seen lots of people on HN who are straightforward, but don't verbally abuse others when correcting them (although they might get a bit terse) - complaining about them is very different than complaining about those who actually start attacking you personally when you disagree with them.

(I, personally, try to be a polite form of the former, but as most people who have extensively commented on the internet can tell you, it's a slippery slope)

sol_invictus|4 years ago

Agreed - out of the blunt comments, maybe 5% are truly abrasive. I don't think it is nearly as big of a problem as the author is making it to be.