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Comment by libria | Hacker News Reader

What exactly is the confusion here? That people share things on their own blog? Or that people vote it up on HN?

If the former, people share all sorts of oddities in their own personal space especially life-changing events of which career moves is one.

If the latter, a lot of people follow "developer influencers" to keep up on the cutting edge trends. I'm personally keeping an eye on the Rust Book and hoping it maintains its high quality so that's my investment in this. I'd go the other way and say it would be borderline irresponsible of him not to publicly state he's moving off Mozilla's payroll b/c of so many of us depending on his super-active involvement in and documentation of Rust.

> why am I reading this?

Yeah, why? A better question is, why are you commenting on not wanting to read it instead of just skipping and moving on?

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It is probably way more the latter concern (the voting) than the former (the writing), but note upthread that Klabnik was aware this was going to happen when he wrote it, which is why he asked Cloud Flare marketing about it first.

As to why I'm commenting on it: because it was submitted for our comment, and this is my comment.

As to why I'm commenting on it: because it was submitted for our comment, and this is my comment.

Was it? Is there any particular expectation that HN users must comment on stories, as opposed to simply reading them and gaining whatever value they gain from that exercise?

I don't know about you, but I certainly don't feel compelled to comment on every HN post. And judging by how many posts hit the /newest page and disappear with 0 comments, I don't think I'm alone in that...

This is on the top/front page though

Do you posit that the presence of a story on the front-page implies that every single HN user is expected to comment? Personally I don't buy that. Hell, I don't even think "presence on the front page" implies that all, or even most, HN users will even read the link. But, who knows... maybe I'm wrong.

You are, there is no maybe about it. The plain English meaning of 'it was submitted for our comment' is not 'everyone is required to comment on every story'. That's just a misinterpretation of your own.

The plain English meaning of 'it was submitted for our comment' is not 'everyone is required to comment on every story'.

In the context of how it was used, that was absolutely the implication. Tptacek submitted that as the rationale to explain his commenting, when he (obviously) could have easily skipped the whole thread. Ultimately there was no real reason for him to bother commenting in the first place...

The context is, one person asks another why they are commenting which is one of the oldest, malignantly dimwitted things to say in an online forum. The other person, mindful of the site guidelines and out of a robust and abiding sense of decorum replies that, this being a commenting place, they comment.

Then you come along and want to interpret that reply to actually mean 'Everything permitted on HN is compulsory'. That is, at a polite minimum, pointedly silly.

> one person

> asks another why they are commenting which is one of the oldest, malignantly dimwitted things to say in an online forum.

Not following. There are many threads on the front page throughout the day. My usual MO is to read and comment on what I find interesting, not the converse. I find it strange to immerse myself in posts that make me "pretty uncomfortable". Like those people who tell me how much they dislike IPA's while continually sipping it.

> he other person, mindful of the site guidelines

I avoided mentioning it explicitly b/c tptacek is a regular contributor, but do some of his comments run afoul of "Please don't impute astroturfing or shillage"? Also "Why is this on HN?" is one of the oldest and least useful questions on HN since it's obvious things are voted up b/c some group found it interesting. If there's a serious problem with it, just use the flag. I expected better of him, honestly.

My usual MO is to read and comment on what I find interesting, not the converse.

It's possible to write about how one is perplexed by what others find interesting, in an interesting way.

Also "Why is this on HN?"

It's not a 'why is this on HN' comment.

I expected better of him, honestly.

wat.

HEY

Then you come along and want to interpret that reply to actually mean 'Everything permitted on HN is compulsory'. That is, at a polite minimum, pointedly silly.

No, that is, at a polite minimum, your mistaken interpretation. And it has nothing whatsoever to do with what I actually said.

AND.... THREAD DEATH.

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