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Comment by stavros | Hacker News Reader

Definitely, but I can still joke about how I didn't understand anything from a comment on something I have no experience with.

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My comment also in jest.

It's this sort of stuff that makes it so good. Nothing like eavesdropping on a highly technical conversation in an esoteric field. Love it.

Sorry, maybe my comment didn't come across appropriately: I agree with you, I loved that comment, I was just joking about how over my head it went!

It's called (I think) sound design. Changing parameters of a sound wave like filters, resonance, envelope, cutoff, etc, you can achieve desired sounds (you can do that using a real synthesizer or a virtual one). In this case they're explaining how to make a bass sound (which is in the lower frequency of the spectrum)

I am an absolute peon relative to most commenters on HN. Perusing this site feeds both my curiosity and my feelings of inadequacy. But this is one of those rare moments when I actually fully understand what the parent comment is describing. I don’t even produce music myself… I’m more of a fanboy, if anything.

Just a heads up that your comment is flagged. You can definitely joke about things, but HN asks that comments be substantive. Yours was not. I realize the irony writing this comment, but hopefully a bit of community heads up can preserve HN's characteristics for a little while longer.

Meta: IMO, it was fine. The digression provided an opportunity for me to produce a substantive comment that requires a little less background to understand than duped's excellent explanation.

It's great that you found an opportunity to teach thanks a low-value comment. HN policies still state that comments need to be substantive. There are good reasons for this that should be respected given that we all take advantage of the community built on those clearly stated expectations.

Expressing that you have no idea what the other person is saying (but that this is part of the value of this community) is not without substance or useless. They could have been more verbose about it, but I'm not sure that makes the community better.

The guidelines are guidelines. We all work to interpret them. HN themselves in introducing the guidelines says that "empty" comments can be okay if they're positive, which I feel this was.

Fair points, and I'd appreciate a source on your last statement from the HN guideline side. I just reviewed them to take into account more nuance that may have been added since the last time I checked. I will disagree with your interpretation of substance but defer to the guidelines.

From the Hacker News Welcome that introduces the guidelines: https://news.ycombinator.com/newswelcome.html

> The test for substance is a lot like it is for links. Does your comment teach us anything? There are two ways to do that: by pointing out some consideration that hadn't previously been mentioned, and by giving more information about the topic, perhaps from personal experience. Whereas comments like "lol" or "That's the dumbest thing I ever heard" teach us nothing.

> Empty comments can be ok if they're positive. There's nothing wrong with submitting a comment saying just "Thanks." What we especially discourage are comments that are empty and negative—comments that are mere name-calling.

The statement dates to 2014.

How can a joke be substantive?

You can write more than one sentence...? How about an actual take on the topic, and then a joke? Or vice versa! Perhaps a question to ask for more clarity? The possibilities are endless beyond a "lol true" type comment.

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