Hacker News Reader

I find it amusing that second-rate grammar (loose/lose) and spelling is the norm for some communities, but the second this topic comes up, everyone turns into a armchair semantic guru.

View on HN

There hasn't been a decades-long campaign to deliberately confuse the concepts of "lose" and "loose". It's just a mistake.

My meta-commentary was on the fact that the issue of semantics seems to serve as a all-too-convenient cognitive escape hatch in these discussions, diverting them from the harder topic at hand: that of intellectual property rights. I find it regrettable that it is employed, as it hinders being able to discuss the problem in a mature, logical fashion.

Very true. Hacker News is not a community where second-rate grammar and spelling is the norm, however.

Also, I'm sure you can see how those who are copying/stealing/whatever you want to call it might wish to call it copying instead of stealing, as that implies a lesser moral judgment (deservedly imo).

Reply on news.ycombinator.com