Someone whose basis for their strong opinion you’ve deemed woefully insufficient?
Someone who doesn’t change their strong opinion when presented with a dozen comments against it and a similar number for it?
That HN commenters are divided on my opinion isn’t toxic: it demonstrates it’s an issue with Reddit that’s affected half of those who’ve spoken up and it’s left us annoyed, shamed, or slighted. That we’re discussing it here demonstrates it’s a Reddit-specific problem.
If my behavior is problematic, then why is it only problematic on Reddit? On HN, apart from this thread, when someone disagrees with me they don’t reach for any -ist or -ic words (“toxic”, “problematic”) to describe me: they disagree with the comment on its own merits.
What does “problematic” even mean, other than that it’s bad and I should feel bad?
Calling someone toxic, problematic, racist, homophobic, etc allows for no defense because they can’t prove evidence of absence. “I’m not problematically toxic and here’s the proof…??”.
Lucky we are not building medical devices here. I’m not interviewing to be on your team in a work environment.
Instead this is an example of the kind of topic that is interesting to discuss casually on HN with other hackers.
The benefit of HN, unlike Reddit, is that disagreeing with someone doesn’t also turn them into a cartoon villain who must be vanquished. People here are allowed to be wrong without also being -ists, -ics, or assholes.
Someone who has a strong opinion and defends it?
Someone whose basis for their strong opinion you’ve deemed woefully insufficient?
Someone who doesn’t change their strong opinion when presented with a dozen comments against it and a similar number for it?
That HN commenters are divided on my opinion isn’t toxic: it demonstrates it’s an issue with Reddit that’s affected half of those who’ve spoken up and it’s left us annoyed, shamed, or slighted. That we’re discussing it here demonstrates it’s a Reddit-specific problem.
If my behavior is problematic, then why is it only problematic on Reddit? On HN, apart from this thread, when someone disagrees with me they don’t reach for any -ist or -ic words (“toxic”, “problematic”) to describe me: they disagree with the comment on its own merits.
What does “problematic” even mean, other than that it’s bad and I should feel bad?
Calling someone toxic, problematic, racist, homophobic, etc allows for no defense because they can’t prove evidence of absence. “I’m not problematically toxic and here’s the proof…??”.
Lucky we are not building medical devices here. I’m not interviewing to be on your team in a work environment.
Instead this is an example of the kind of topic that is interesting to discuss casually on HN with other hackers.
The benefit of HN, unlike Reddit, is that disagreeing with someone doesn’t also turn them into a cartoon villain who must be vanquished. People here are allowed to be wrong without also being -ists, -ics, or assholes.