Hacker News Reader

Bear in mind that not everyone is a native speaker. Using simpler words ensures the widest audience.

I agree that not every piece of writing has the same intended audience, but I take umbrage at the use of the term "singleton masses".

View on HN

I find the appeal to non-native speakers to be patronizing in itself. English is my fourth language and I understand long words and complex sentence structure just fine.

Not everyone's good at languages. I really appreciate it when people write simply, so I only have to look a few thousand words up in the dictionary to understand it.

I admit my phrasing was harsh, but I stand by it with a caveat that I could have expressed it better. I personally do not think of the masses as "simpletons," but I believe our media and product manufacturers most certainly do. There should have been a semi-colon between those two sentences, or something.

My own writing could use more work, but I suppose that is the point of practicing it as an art.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com