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Comment by debaserab2 | Hacker News Reader

It doesn't read that way to me, it just reads as an adjective to make the article more "shocking" and illustrate the role of a webmaster to appear more against the grain of our little IT/startup world.

I think the rest of the essay does a great job of explaining why and how webmasters were so important and how they were/are the ultimate problem solver. No ego boosting qualifiers necessary.

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Mainly those who are indeed somewhat shocked (usually due to some still active puritan heritage) actually think that such words were meant to "make the article more 'shocking'".

The rest don't even blink when we see them -- especially from countries without a history of a prudish outlook on things.

One can see people getting slashed with knives and shot in the head on PG13 movies -- words like these are nothing compared to that.

The primary use of cursing is when one is frustrated or angry and wants to draw attention to an issue. I think it's safe to say that adding a swear word to a title is going to draw attention to the title simply because the use of the swear word.

I'm not shocked, I'm just bored of the "I'm a fucking <nostalgic or out of style thing>" or "This fucking <nostalgic or out of style thing>" trend. Just because swearing hasn't become so blasé to a person doesn't mean they have an "active puritan heritage".

I don't see why you got downvoted. I 100% agree with you. It was simply not necessary. If you go around the web, even to large, reputable news sites, it seems more and more people are opting to not think about language and use whatever word first pops into their mind. To me, it's not about shock or ego boosting, it's simply mental laziness.

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