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Comment by chollida1 | Hacker News Reader

I think you are being more than a bit pedantic for very little benefit.

I never said "Non Gaap accounting", I said "Non Gaap measures".

That doesn't have to mean Pnl, it can, and was intended, to mean things like user engagement numbers, monthly uniques, etc.

Is there a different terminology that you would prefer that I use?

how about this........

I'm interested in seeing whether they focus on their earnings vs user growth numbers. Would this satisfy you?

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I for one appreciated Greg's note and your follow-up. When you said non gaap initially I thought you explicitly meant the non gaap but still accounting systems that a large, large number of companies out on quarterly earnings (they'll do it right next to it, say " gaap X, non gaap Y ".

So you may see it as pedantic, but I think it was a useful clarification.

Yup i think 'earnings vs user growth numbers' is a great way to put it

My thinking was that 'People worried about money losing companies with huge valuations' is a popular cause of consternation and 'People worried about non-GAAP accounting' is another popular (for some people) cause of consternation.

Gaap(Pnl) vs non-gaap made me suspect you were conflating the two worries, and made me wonder if lots of people might also be confused by what accounting/finance/investment people are generally talking about when they talk about "Non-GAAP measures"

Agree. As a person in accounting/finance/investment, measures like user growth are called KPIs (key performance indicators) and are distinct from NGFMs (non-GAAP financial measures).

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