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Comment by ujjwalg | Hacker News Reader

I am bit confused, since I am pretty new to this voting system at YC. Unless you have something useful to say for the topic, you just cannot leave a comment saying you like/dislike it?

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The idea is that comments are for interesting and insightful discussion about the link/topic. From the guidelines:

    "Please don't submit comments complaining that a submission is inappropriate
    for the site. If you think something is spam or offtopic, flag it by going to
    its page and clicking on the "flag" link. (Not all users will see this; there
    is a karma threshold.) If you flag something, please don't also comment that 
    you did."

http://ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html

Your quote does not support your claim that the comments are for interesting and insightful discussion only. in fact, there are some untold guidelines that you must abide by to not be voted into the grey oblivion. One, as the grandparent found out, is that you must only post things that others to deem beneficial. The only yc-sanctioned method of showing support is to vote up. Another strict one is no humor, even if it adds to the conversation.

We've had the discussion before, but humor can get modded up. It just needs to actually funny, as opposed to just the poster thinking it's funny. (You're not as funny as you think you are.)

We also associate off-color humor with Digg/Reddit trolling, and with people who like to hear the sound of their own voice.

So another requirement is that humorous antics improve the signal to noise ratio.

RTFM?

My intent was to brush over the site guidelines, not to dig deep into the ethos of HN.

Pretty much. Try elaborating on why you like or dislike something.

I had no idea. Thanks for pointing it out.

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