Hacker News Reader

Comment by b112 | Hacker News Reader

Lids must remain up always. For family peace, I removed the lid completely.

What?

How's using the lid a controversial thing at all?

The commenter is likely snarking about living with a female (or females). Some can be, er, particular about the toilet lid.

(Yes, the solution here is to put the lid back up when done, but then that ruins a bit of the GP's (I think) intended humor.)

You're thinking of the seat, not the lid. Although women are wrong about this. The standard should be a single seat manipulation per urinary event. That's the only fair way to do it. Why should the men manipulate the seat twice and women never?

If your goal is to minimize pathogens transferred from seat to hand, you can think of the man's second seat manipulation as "zero cost" in the sense that their hand is already contaminated and they'll need to wash thoroughly

Man 2x, Woman 0x = 1 "contamination" cost incurred Man 1x, Woman 1x = 2 "contamination" cost incurred

This is an interesting view. Like anything else it's important to establish what the goals actually are.

Agreed, lid goes down prior to each flush. Guys raise the seat if they are standing up, otherwise anyone else using the toilet just needs to raise and lower the lid.

Yeah, this has long been my response to the stupid seat-up/seat-down controversy. Fine, lid's going down too. That way stuff can't get knocked or dropped in, and it reduces flush-spray, so it's better anyway.

No, two of the relationships I’ve been in have involved women who absolutely loathed if the lid was down, or if the seat was up. It had to be lid-up, seat-down at all times.

I had to teach my (female) partner to close the lid, too. She got it after a while.

Huh? You open the thing, sit down to do your business, then close it. It's two simple manipulations for everyone, and for civility.

Some men are learning to urinate sitting down. Think about it, if that toilet is sending aerosols into the air, what is your stream of urine doing as you stand distantly from the toilet? Also, if you've ever cleaned toilets then you know about the accuracy of anyone who insists on standing.

https://www.theunconventionalroute.com/men-pee-sitting-down/ or just search using terms like: men are learning to pee sitting down

I piss sitting down plenty and always have (sometimes I just want to sit and relax a bit, you know? Or sometimes you feel like you've got a fart in the mix but aren't entirely sure it won't be a shart, so you sit just to be safe) but I do find it doesn't quite empty me out as well. Standing's better, like, anatomically, for some reason.

Studies have shown that there is no difference for healthy adult males, but sitting is actually better for evacuation as you start to get an enlarged prostate (Roughly half of men over 50).

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4106761/

Lovely, maybe I'm getting one of those way younger than I'm "supposed" to, LOL. I think the first time I noticed a (small, but non-zero) difference between the two was in my late 20s.

You still splash when sitting. You'd need to measure it to know what results in less aerosol exposure (particularly considering the distance-to-face factor), even though it probably doesn't matter anyway. And anyone who has ever cleaned toilets knows that the women's room is not a paradise of cleanliness.

Why do you want an open air toilet?

Just like rules are there to be followed, the lid is there to be closed. Ordnung muss sein.

Yes rules must be adhered to, and removing the lid ensures compliance with correct rules.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com