Hacker News Reader

Comment by kghose | Hacker News Reader

I think that the overly critical culture of many European nations prevents younger people from trying out or voicing ideas because humans are human and don't like being humiliated , especially in public. This is something I think we should not emulate.

View on HN

>overly critical culture of many European nations prevents younger people from trying out or voicing ideas

I don't think this is what is happening here.

>humans are human and don't like being humiliated , especially in public.

This is just the cultural difference I'm talking about. Someone criticizing your work or behavior does not universally signal humiliating you as a person. I acknowledge that this may be so for you personally or in your culture.

Hi nabla9,

I read the bug report thread and that was as professional as I would expect from grownups. I was responding to your statement about anglo-american culture.

I have observed this "it's OK to be direct" motto from some parts of modern Europe and, interestingly for me, Israel.

Everything we interpret depends on our training, but my observation is that this motto is very commonly interpreted to allow rude, condescending and arrogant behavior. I spent a lot of time in India. In this respect correct behavior (as taught to us by our parents) aligns with the Anglo-American view of politeness in many respects.

I have come to believe that the directness championed by some current European cultures may perhaps be a modern phenomenon, not so common before the 1940s in those countries?

I agree that too much politeness can be perverted into passive aggressive behavior but so can (and I think is) this "Let's be direct" attitude.

There has been much talk on HN and everywhere else of how to develop a code of conduct that allows honest exchange but maintain civility. I think politeness and respect is a central part of this code.

People are not computers. You can not kick them when their output does not please you. You can not kick them when you think you are better than them.

Well, perhaps you can. Perhaps being rude and arrogant leads to a better world.

I would like, however to live in a world where everyone tries to respect each other and show that respect.

Best

nabla9 -> I have a technical question about HM comments. I see two interesting things about your reply

1. I can not see a down-vote button (To clarify I personally never down-vote anything, just upvote things) 2. I don't see a reply link to your comment.

This does not seem to be a nesting limit (I can see a reply link for other comments elsewhere here)

What is this - is there some option one picks when responding to a comment?

Thanks -Kaushik

Regarding the missing down vote button: only users with 500 points of karma or more can down vote.

Regarding the reply limit: I believe there is a timer involved. A comment has to have a certain age (5 minutes?) before some one can reply to it.

Ah, yes, I see the time-limit. However, for me the presence or absence of a down vote button seems to be somewhat arbitrary.

The downvote button (and presumably the ability to downvote) is removed for direct replies to comments you have authored. It is also removed for top level comments on articles you have submitted.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com