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Comment by sandworm101 | Hacker News Reader

Correct. It had absolutely nothing to do with the representation of masonic principals through architecture. Niether does the washington monument. Masons have had absolutely no influence on american federal buildings. All that symetry and numbers stuff happened purely by chance.

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For the pentagon, I have seen no evidence to the contrary, but the rest of your statement is wrong. Sorry I don't have time to go on a chase for citations for you, but there is plenty of evidence of Masonic influence (not that this is a bad thing) on the general layout of the DC area.

I forget. HN has no concept of humor. Absolutely ever word in this place is to be taken literally.

Which, to be fair, is a large part of why it is what it is. There are plenty of spaces where sarcasm, cynicism, and humor are not discouraged. There's something... peaceful about HN's norms.

Humor, which includes sarcasm, is the only one of those you won't find here in spades. One could drown in the cynicism.

yes, that sense of analness, like half the time you are talking to Sheldon Cooper.

Sarcasm doesn't translate to text very well at all. The comments that come after when people are mistaken about the lack of/use of sarcasm are pretty pointless and detract from actual discussion.

It does where readers understand the conventions. Repetition of words or absolutes points to sarcasm. "I never smoked pot" or "I have absolutely never ever under any circumstances even been in the same room as pot."

Repetition of words with similar meaning is also a common literary and oral communication technique for emphasis of important points you want the audience to take away.

So, yeah, it can indicate sarcasm, but it can also indicate the exact opposite. It oral communication, tone would usually disambiguate between the two intents.

Oh, sorry, my sarcasm detector is broken... always has been. One of my greatest weaknesses. Oops.

It has been long established that sarcasm and text communications go together about as well as peanut butter and urine.

Citation please?

I choose to interpret this as a humorous jab at another of HNs endearing norms.

Wait for it ...

The entire top comment thread belies this statement. HN humor just has a particularly nerdy bent, in a way entirely unlike the bleeding sarcasm you'd find on, say, Reddit.

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