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Comment by FooBarWidget | Hacker News Reader

Reading this comment makes me sad. Does this mean you would have immediately closed the tab, irregardless of technology, if they didn't namedrop?

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I was already giving it the benefit of the doubt by reading any further than "next generation web framework for node.js".

Couldn't agree more. Happy that I did though.

Too many things claim to be a "next generation framework", that it usually is a let down because it is just a rehash of something.

But this is something new that looks like it can be good. I've been wondering when it would be announced, as TJ has been working on it for a while: https://github.com/visionmedia?tab=activity

Offtopic: *irregardless is not a word, Just use regardless.

Like it or not, irregardless is here to stay. Languages change, mispellings become the correct way to spell things, words become their own antonyms, and a lot of other very strange things. Embrace it!

It's just wrong. Why embrace things that don't make sense? Are we embracing the Idiocracy?

I reject your implication. Just because a lot of people use it does not make it grammatically accurate.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Irregardless

> Just because a lot of people use it does not make it grammatically accurate.

Actually, that's exactly what it does... over time. Where exactly do you think our language, as it exists today, came from?

An interesting read on the subject: http://www.amazon.com/The-Unfolding-Language-Evolutionary-In...

@swalkergibson flammable and inflammable both mean the same thing.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flammability#Flammable_vs._infl...

Of course language evolves, but a double-negative is a double-negative, no matter how you slice it. Do you have another example of a single word that is a double-negative?

And yet one of the father's of written modern English, Chaucer himself often used double negatives [0].

ex:

"Ther nas no man no wher so vertuous" ("There never was no man nowhere so virtuous")

"He nevere yet no vileynye ne sayde / In all his lyf unto no maner wight" ("He never yet no vileness didn't say / In all his life to no manner of man").

The modern English language (written and spoken) has been in constant flux for the last 600+ years. What was once required is now antiquated, and what was once verboten is now required.

At this moment in time, double negatives are frowned upon. However, that may change in the future, and it's possible that irregardless is the start of a new set of changes in the language.

[0] - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Double_negative

> And yet one of the father's of written modern English, Chaucer himself often used double negatives [0].

It's worth noting that neither of your examples has a double negative. Triple negative (the second possibly quadruple), sure, but not double.

> At this moment in time, double negatives are frowned upon.

I don't know that there's really a shift in time with the double negative, its a stylistic rule, and, much like the Pirate Code, stylistic rules in English are more what you'd call guidelines than actual rules.

Or, looked at another way, more like training wheels.

Guidelines indeed. For reference, here is an example of a double negative from the Prologue to the Canterbury Tales:

Nowher so bisy a man as he ther nas [0] (Nowhere so busy a man as he there none)

[0] http://www.bartleby.com/40/0102.html line 321

Unless?

Oh snap.

Welcome to Hacker News, home of the worlds largest contrarian user base.

That link, and the mere fact it exists, contradicts your point. Irregardless is a word [...]

Irregardless, it's not about being grammatically correct, but being socially accepted and understood; just like slang and broken grammar that develops in subcultures, it ain't no goin anywhere!

So why would you want to use it? What is the point of saying irregardless vis-a-vis irrespective or regardless?

Trolling the language police is a pretty good reason, actually.

I am whelmed by this whole conversation!

Is it fair to call this willful ignorance?

it's because of the hyperbole:

> next generation web framework for node.js

I don't think they need that, just list the stand-out features first. And yes, referring to past accomplishments does give it more credibility.

This utilizes generators heavily. Generators are within the ES6 spec, which is the next generation of JavaScript.

This might be one of the very few instances that "next generation" is a valid statement.

You don't believe in social proof and a history of success?

I would.

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