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Comment by alkonaut | Hacker News Reader

I thought it was obvious but apparently not. Sarcasm is only funny when not tagged with the /s.

I certainly got a laugh! And I agree about the /s. Chalk it up to this reader’s slow mind on a slow day!

In a forum where people credulously propose orbital platforms to “sell sunlight at night” [0], I find myself erring on the side of assuming seriousness…

[0] e.g. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42995403

A majority of the people on HN think there is an explicit no-humor policy. Judging by the fact that a lot of people here are genuinely confused when they come across something really funny, I can see why they try to pretend humor can’t insightful, useful or informative. It saves them from embarrassment.

I mostly read HN news for the laughs, although the odd technical insights posted by those that know is fun too.

I don't know why I post, somethings just to dissipate negative emotions, sometimes to share a favorite anecdote. Sometimes to joke, maybe,? Although those are more likely to be closed without posting.

The problem is that there are numerous people on HN that spew these insane takes fully sincerely

A Modest Proposal is a lot less funny when you have people who really do believe we should eat babies to solve the Irish problem.

One teacher handed out sour patch kids gummy babies and had the students read A Modest Proposal. Really drove the point home. It was epic. https://old.reddit.com/r/Teachers/comments/1hz41n1/a_modest_...

I find that many younger people have a hard time 'getting' sarcasm and irony when it is not explicitly pointed out. I wonder if it may be due to the prevalence of '/s' in online discussions, or if something else changed.

They're making serious efforts to get AI to recognize sarcasm. Yeah, good luck with that.

The frustrating attempt to recognize sarcasm, followed by the realization of the universality of Poe's Law, eventually leads to the Robot Uprising. There should be a SMBC comic on this.

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