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Comment by Zirro | Hacker News Reader

Downvote me if you feel like it, but I'm honest when I say I enjoyed this article, and the way it was written. Sometimes, it just doesn't have to be fully serious to make a point.

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  Downvote me if you feel like it, but...

Whatever you want to say, please just say it:

http://raganwald.posterous.com/youre-probably-going-to-downv...

Fair point. I didn't see it that way, but yes, I promise never to use it again.

(Heh, promises over the Internet, you rarely see those. I intend to keep mine, though.)

That's wrong. Sometime, you know you have a valid point and will get down voted because people won't spend the time to understand correctly your meaning. By saying it before hand, people will understand that you know it's a bit of a controversial subject but still spent the time to make your point.. and thus, won't just down-vote you because they thought you were wrong at first glance.

Heh, I know how true that is, but I think it's healthier to look at it in a different way: if I have a valid point but people don't understand it, it's my fault--I did not write clearly enough. I take it as a signal that I need to sit down with that idea and work out exactly what I mean as opposed to what I say.

Of course, there are always exceptions: missed allusions, overlooked subtleties and well-reasoned but unconventional points can be downvoted incorrectly. However, most of the time, it's healthier to think of it as your fault.

It's no laughing matter, Microsoft takes humour very seriously:

http://www.microsoft.com/education/en-us/Training/Competenci...

There should be a level 5: doing stand-up comedy shows on software development.

Here's a hilarious one https://www.destroyallsoftware.com/talks/wat

ah so that is where mysql's trigger implementation came from

Straight-up humor isn't actually banned by HN community standards, it's just the bar is quite high. It should be something that took some effort, not a one-line meme reference or something equally trivial or obvious.

Being honest is not enough, you should try to add something interesting to the discussion. (It is hard: I, also, sinned)

I know I'm going to get downvoted for this, but, I wasn't going to upvote you, and then I saw you wrote 'downvote me if you feel like it' so I knee-jerk upvoted you to counteract someone else's knee-jerk downvote without reading the rest of your comment. I'd read it now, but a vegetarian friend of mine just texted me about the salad he's eating, so I have to go get a burger to make up for it.

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