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tomhow

3,690 karma · joined October 30, 2007

Sell your cleverness and buy bewilderment. --Rumi

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Please send HN questions to hn@ycombinator.com.

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tomhow··on How accurate have Ed Zitron's AI skeptic predictions been?
Many thanks!
tomhow··on Introducing Ad Blocker for Firefox on iOS
Appending "Thanks, dicks" weakens the comment because it demonstrates they have nothing to say other than vulgarity, which means they have nothing substantive to say at all. We never object to profanity by itself on HN. We do object to abusive swipes and name-calling, because it pulls discussion away from HN's primary purpose, which is curious conversation, and drags it towards the gutter.

While I have you: could you please have a re-read of the guidelines and have a think about if you really intend to participate here earnestly? We've asked you several times to lift your game, and we're not seeing any effort to reform. This place only continues to exist because we have guidelines and uphold them daily, and enough other people make the effort to contribute positively. https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html

tomhow··on How accurate have Ed Zitron's AI skeptic predictions been?
Be kind. Don't be snarky. Converse curiously; don't cross-examine. Edit out swipes.

Comments should get more thoughtful and substantive, not less, as a topic gets more divisive.

When disagreeing, please reply to the argument instead of calling names. "That is idiotic; 1 + 1 is 2, not 3" can be shortened to "1 + 1 is 2, not 3."

Please don't fulminate. Please don't sneer...

https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html

tomhow··on Introducing Ad Blocker for Firefox on iOS
> Thanks, dicks.

Must we? Such vulgar swipes only weaken your position, making you seem like the bigger jerk. Please observe the guidelines, not because you owe Mozilla anything but because you owe this community and indeed yourself better than this. https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html

tomhow··on Europe's summer drought is so extreme that desertification is a growing threat
Once again, please don't do this here.
tomhow··on Prompting Claude Fable 5.1 and Claude Mythos 5.1
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49525378
tomhow··on Claude Fable 5.1
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49525378
tomhow··on Fable 5.1 System Card
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49525378
tomhow··on Claude Fable 5.1 and Claude Mythos 5.1
Comments moved to https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49525378.
tomhow··on Introducing Ad Blocker for Firefox on iOS
Firefox for iOS now has a native adblocker - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49319633 - Aug 2026 (279 comments)
tomhow··on 'They shot all their weapons; they trashed their ships; they ran out of money'
Please stop.
tomhow··on Student teacher arrested for private Snapchat message
Could you please stop posting unsubstantive comments and flamebait? You've unfortunately been doing it repeatedly. It's not what this site is for, and destroys what it is for.

If you wouldn't mind reviewing https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html and taking the intended spirit of the site more to heart, we'd be grateful.

tomhow··on Tmp.0ut Volume 5
Comments moved to https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49516059.
tomhow··on Tmp.0ut Volume 5
Comments moved to https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49516059.
tomhow··on RavynOS: Pre-alpha open-source OS based on Darwin, FreeBSD, Apple open-source
Please don't fulminate on HN. The guidelines make it clear we're trying for something better here. https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html
tomhow··on OpenShot 4.0 – Open-source video editor
We've banned this account.
tomhow··on UC Berkeley indefinitely suspends international student work authorizations
We've banned this account.

We detached this comment from https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49505563 and marked it off topic.

tomhow··on U.S. State Department pauses immigrant visa applications
I’m as concerned about economic collapse as anyone. We’re not so delusional as to think we can fix the hardest problems in the world by writing assholish comments to each other on what is a nerd message board. This is a site for people who build things, and for people who are are interested in discussing new approaches to difficult problems. It’s not for clobbering each other over the head with ideas that people have been clobbering each other over the head with for decades. Stop trashing the guidelines and our efforts to uphold them; they are the entire reason this continues to be a place where people come to discuss difficult topics after nearly two decades. Please go somewhere else if this is the best you have to offer. This is a place for people who have high standards of themselves.
tomhow··on U.S. sanctions against the A/I Collective
The whole discussion is a hellscape, and you (should, by now) know that it's not our role to adjudicate on the correctness of anyone's arguments. But “bootlicker” is, by design, one of the most demeaning terms of abuse that ever gets used here. It's not asking much, at all, to expect people to avoid using it. That account has contributed little of substance, so it's not as if there was a track record of earnest participation to suggest that this was a momentary lapse.
tomhow··on U.S. sanctions against the A/I Collective
> fucking asshole.

> Go fuck yourself, gaslighting piece of shit.

This is a completely unacceptable style of commenting on HN, no matter who or what you're replying to. We've asked you before to observe the guidelines. Please take a moment to read them again and make an effort to observe them, regardless of how right you are or feel you are. If you can't make your point without being abusive, you probably don't have a good point. We have to ban accounts that continue commenting like this. https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html.

tomhow··on US sanctions Italian hosting provider Autistici Inventati
HN is not the place for debating topics in that way. The guidelines specifically ask: “Please don't use Hacker News for political or ideological battle. It tramples curiosity.” Please choose a different forum if you want to engage in such discussions. You're welcome here if you earnestly intend to observe the HN guidelines. https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html
tomhow··on U.S. State Department pauses immigrant visa applications
Please spare us the sermonizing and personal vitriol, thanks. I posted the same reply to the other commenter. My role here is to uphold the guidelines, not to adjudicate on the relative merits of arguments in a fundamentally toxic debate. This place only continues to exist because we have guidelines and uphold them daily, and because enough other people bother to be respectful in the way they participate here. If you’re not able to make your points without personal attacks, this is not the place for you.
tomhow··on U.S. State Department pauses immigrant visa applications
Be kind. Don't be snarky. Converse curiously; don't cross-examine. Edit out swipes.

Comments should get more thoughtful and substantive, not less, as a topic gets more divisive.

When disagreeing, please reply to the argument instead of calling names. "That is idiotic; 1 + 1 is 2, not 3" can be shortened to "1 + 1 is 2, not 3."

Please don't fulminate. Please don't sneer, including at the rest of the community.

Eschew flamebait. Avoid generic tangents. Omit internet tropes.

Please don't use Hacker News for political or ideological battle. It tramples curiosity.

https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html

tomhow··on U.S. State Department pauses immigrant visa applications
Be kind. Don't be snarky. Converse curiously; don't cross-examine. Edit out swipes.

Comments should get more thoughtful and substantive, not less, as a topic gets more divisive.

When disagreeing, please reply to the argument instead of calling names. "That is idiotic; 1 + 1 is 2, not 3" can be shortened to "1 + 1 is 2, not 3."

Please don't fulminate. Please don't sneer, including at the rest of the community.

Eschew flamebait. Avoid generic tangents. Omit internet tropes.

Please don't use Hacker News for political or ideological battle. It tramples curiosity.

https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html

tomhow··on U.S. sanctions against the A/I Collective
We've banned this account.
tomhow··on U.S. sanctions against the A/I Collective
Please don't post like this here. If a comment is egregious, as this one is, please flag it and consider emailing hn@ycombinator.com to let us know about it.

https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html

tomhow··on US sanctions Italian hosting provider Autistici Inventati
Please don't keep commenting the way you did in this thread. It's not what HN is for and it destroys what it is for. Please take a moment to read the guidelines, particularly these ones:

Be kind. Don't be snarky. Converse curiously; don't cross-examine. Edit out swipes.

Comments should get more thoughtful and substantive, not less, as a topic gets more divisive.

Eschew flamebait. Avoid generic tangents. Omit internet tropes.

Please don't use Hacker News for political or ideological battle. It tramples curiosity.

https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html

tomhow··on Pentagon's blacklisting of Anthropic was unlawful, US judge rules
Comments moved thither. Thanks!
tomhow··on The turbulent AI era is here
We've banned this account.
tomhow··on We will need more (not fewer) scientists
Please don't post article summaries as comments, thanks!
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