It could do without the snark, but it does have a ring of truth to it, doesn't it?
cmon man... the last jibe about Techcrunch was a bit was a bit snarky, but this post speaks the truth. Product shut down, founders joining as engineers. is there anything mean spirited about stating the obvious?
Sure there is. Imagine telling a child "your drawings are very clumsy; they don't look at all like what they're drawings of," or telling a very old person "you're probably going to die soon."
Mean-spirited comments are rarely completely false. They're mostly nasty ways to use (usually partial) truths.
Is the problem with the comment the tone or the content?
I'm guessing it's more the tone, but probably also the content a little. Sometimes it doesn't hurt to leave some things unsaid even if there could be some truth to them.
It hurts because it distorts people's perceptions which impairs their judgement: If you never talk about things going sideways then people underestimate how often it happens which may cause them to pursue something that they wouldn't otherwise.
Are you trying to point out that tone doesn't matter, only content? I hope not. That would be a boring thing to have to hear again.
As went Reddit, so goes Hacker News (albeit far more slowly). With some sadness, I feel that it is just about time for the next refuge for hackers to spring up out of nowhere and captivate us. Even Hacker News, it seems, can't escape becoming too big.
Don't you know that when you ask for civility you're a tone troll and that everything you're asking for can be dismissed because the words "tone troll" are a magical incantation against which no defense can be mounted?