Comment by davorak
3 days ago
If it never gets in the way of the humans communicate it probably won't be an issue. That is the reading I have of the rule and Dang's comments
> HN is for conversation between humans.
If it is enhancing that instead of detracting and wasting peoples time it does not seem to be against the spirt of the rules.
Except the letter of the rule makes it verboten even “if it never gets in the way of the humans communicate”.
> HN has always been a spirit-of-the-law place, and—contrary to the "technically correct is the best correct" mentality that many of us share—we consciously resist the temptation to make them too precise.
That is from dang's post in: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47342616
That whole post is clarifying for the intent of the new rule(s).
The problem with “spirit-of-the-law” is that having rules be subject to discretion is a pretty clear avenue for discrimination and abuse. Not as big of a deal for an Internet forum as it would be for, say, a country's legal code and the enforcement thereof, but the lack of a clear standard for a rule makes that rule hard to follow and harder to enforce impartially.
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