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Comment by zinkem | Hacker News Reader

You might want to finish the article.

I get that the article is against the patent process, and the downmodders don't seem to get that I was referring to IV's characterisation of itself, not npr's characterisation of IV - I thought it was clear where I was directing it due to the phrase "you're not a market".

I wasn't using 'patent troll' or any of the other terminology. I was pointing out a flaw in this guy's reasoning. Yes, I had only read 500 words into a 4000 word article. I'm now about halfway through and have scanned the rest of the article... and I don't see anything that invalidates my claim above. IV is not the 'market' that it says it is. If anything, I am supporting what npr is saying.

HN moderation is weird.

The subject of article is more or less how IV's reasoning is flawed. Picking a quote from the beginning and saying "that is flawed" is just echoing the bulk of the article. I would guess your downmodders think you're not adding to the discussion.

I don't buy that argument - why aren't many of the other short comments in this page getting the same treatment when they're not adding to the discussion either?

If you had cut out the "Admittedly I stopped reading the article when I got to" part of your comment, you probably wouldn't have been downvoted. I think the general perception is that it's difficult to add to the discussion of an article if you didn't even bother to read that article, especially when your comment merely echoed the article.

I, too, think it is that particular phrase, and I disagree with the sentiment of downmodding this kind of admission instead of actual content.

I've seen this elsewhere - if someone says they're being sarcastic, they're downmodded to hell... but people in the same thread saying the same thing in the same sarcastic manner, but without the admission, are left alone.

I find this inconsistency annoying - it appears that downmod-friendly HNers are more interested in making a pretense to politeness than actually moderating content. It only takes a single dissenter and your words are already diminished on the page.

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