Comment by Arech
5 years ago
Hey downvoter, would you mind to explain? I genuinely don't understand why I or anyone else should care if some person wasted a lot of time on formatting a text to paragraph boundaries. Is it forbidden to ask such questions here?
I genuinely don't understand why I or anyone else should care if some person wasted a lot of time on formatting a text to paragraph boundaries.
It's nice to take an interest in what other people do, and to show that you're interested, even if it isn't something you'd do yourself. It's the kind thing to do. Kindness is an admirable quality in people. Asking "why should anyone care?" shows a lack of understanding of that.
Please note what the author did say: "thousands (tens of? hundreds of?) of people will have read it during the past two decades, and NONE OF THEM CAN SEE IT!". I'm not a native English speaker, but isn't it sufficiently qualifies as "anyone didn't see"?
That doesn't say that the author thinks everyone should've seen it, or should care. Just that it's a work that almost noone sees while it's just there in plain sight. And the author finds it intriguing knowing about a thing that many have seen, but don't know they have.
This is hacker news. People come here to read about other people doing cool/impressive stuff just because they can. Not because they have to.
Plus, time enjoyed is never time wasted, and clearly the author of the guide had a lot of fun with this.
Well, I have nothing against that. I just wondered why they are surprised that others don't find it so interesting? And bearing in mind that I may miss something I asked for clarifications. Should I be hated for that enough to be kicked out of the community (b/c that's what basically downvotes do)?
I didn’t downvote you, but your comment was probably downvoted because it comes across as rude and dismissive and somewhat like a teenager trying to impress a crowd with how cool he is for not caring.
1 reply →
A downvote is not hate.
2 replies →
Personally, I think it's interesting when I see someone has created something which accidentally conforms to a tangential restricted form.
Like, an acrostic, or Bach hiding his initials in the notes. Also, it's not formatting. :)
As for the downvote, I have no idea! It seems this is a divisive topic -- my first comment, above, must have raised many's ire. Also, I think asking why you are downvoted is also verboten. (see: https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html) shrug