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Comment by Zirro | Hacker News Reader

Downvote me if you feel like it, but I'm honest when I say I enjoyed this article, and the way it was written. Sometimes, it just doesn't have to be fully serious to make a point.

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  Downvote me if you feel like it, but...

Whatever you want to say, please just say it:

http://raganwald.posterous.com/youre-probably-going-to-downv...

That's wrong. Sometime, you know you have a valid point and will get down voted because people won't spend the time to understand correctly your meaning. By saying it before hand, people will understand that you know it's a bit of a controversial subject but still spent the time to make your point.. and thus, won't just down-vote you because they thought you were wrong at first glance.

Heh, I know how true that is, but I think it's healthier to look at it in a different way: if I have a valid point but people don't understand it, it's my fault--I did not write clearly enough. I take it as a signal that I need to sit down with that idea and work out exactly what I mean as opposed to what I say.

Of course, there are always exceptions: missed allusions, overlooked subtleties and well-reasoned but unconventional points can be downvoted incorrectly. However, most of the time, it's healthier to think of it as your fault.

Fair point. I didn't see it that way, but yes, I promise never to use it again.

(Heh, promises over the Internet, you rarely see those. I intend to keep mine, though.)

It's no laughing matter, Microsoft takes humour very seriously:

http://www.microsoft.com/education/en-us/Training/Competenci...

There should be a level 5: doing stand-up comedy shows on software development.

Here's a hilarious one https://www.destroyallsoftware.com/talks/wat

ah so that is where mysql's trigger implementation came from

Straight-up humor isn't actually banned by HN community standards, it's just the bar is quite high. It should be something that took some effort, not a one-line meme reference or something equally trivial or obvious.

Being honest is not enough, you should try to add something interesting to the discussion. (It is hard: I, also, sinned)

I know I'm going to get downvoted for this, but, I wasn't going to upvote you, and then I saw you wrote 'downvote me if you feel like it' so I knee-jerk upvoted you to counteract someone else's knee-jerk downvote without reading the rest of your comment. I'd read it now, but a vegetarian friend of mine just texted me about the salad he's eating, so I have to go get a burger to make up for it.

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