However, pretty much all dialectic and idiomatic shifts look stupid to those entrenched in the existing "standards" and not part of the current "in-crowd." Language changes, and as it does so it leaves behind the previous generation. Perhaps this will flourish briefly and then die out. Perhaps it will return every 10 years or so, possibly even become mundane rather than regarded by some as "cool" and others as, well, juvenile.

Personally, I think that saying "This" looks stupid, but it succinctly expresses the sentiment of the one who writes it. I certainly think it's less stupid than saying "I could care less" when one means that one doesn't care at all. Even saying "meh" would be more acceptable than that illogical expletive.

But in the end this is unhelpful. The language used here will reflect the norms of the population. You can try a King Canute and stand against the tide, but you can't win.

Bring back some form of positive vote indicators.

They don't need to be exact, they just need to properly indicate that "this" post is being recognized without us having to post a "this" post.

    +------------------------------+
    | xXMasterChiefXx              |
    |------------------------------|
    |                              |
    |   +----------------------+   |
    |   | ShadowKiller2K said: |   |
    |   |----------------------|   |
    |   |                      |   |
    |   | Xbawks > PS3         |   |
    |   |                      |   |
    |   +----------------------+   |
    |                              |
    |   This.                      |
    |                              |
    +------------------------------+ 

I remember a specific user on a forum I used to participate in that did the quote+this thing constantly, as if they were trying to build up a reputation of being a sage individual without having to do a lick of original thinking.

If the former I might suggest it has something to with the fact that commenting is the only visible form of 'voting' on HN now that comment scores are hidden.

If the latter, I am completely ambivalent. Its a popular turn of phrase it successfully and succinctly communicates agreement and endorsement of the parent comment. At the same time I wouldn't mind terribly if it fell into disuse.

I can not recall ever seeing it in a thread and I read hn somewhat frequently. The only thing I can think of is that there is a certain subculture that uses "this" and that I do not read the stories that this subculture is interested in. Does anyone have any examples?

I may be curmudgeonly and dumb, but I can't see where 'This' has any real advantage over 'I agree'. So 'I agree' with the OP.

There are only a couple of exceptions I can think of:

- if someone says something about your business, personal life, or recognized area of expertise, your confirmation is of value. In that case, "I agree" is a perfectly fine standalone response.

- if you're responding in disagreement to one part of a post, it can be helpful to mention that you agree with other parts, in order to stop responses like "you ignored the rest of what I said". Clarifying the scope of your response can help keep discussion focused, and is therefore of value.

If so, I think that's strange. Why would that bother you? They're giving you an idea of what their comment will be like up front to help you understand it more easily.

If not, they why does it bother you when they say essentially the same thing with four fewer words?

It's totally fine to be annoyed by a comment that doesn't add anything or is immature, but that's what you should be annoyed by, not the fact that they happened to use a particular phrase that concisely states a summary of their opinion.

I feel like, whatever the cause, comments that tend to start with "This." tend to be follow this pattern as well. It's not always the case, which is why I'd urge people to not use "This." when starting a sentence. I also feel like "This." hangs there to evoke a vote of karma, irrespective of comment content much more than "I completely agree with you" would, especially with people who frequent reddit.

[1] http://www.paulgraham.com/hackernews.html

If it clarifies that they aren't arguing with the parent post, it's valuable, but even then you could say, "To expand on your point about..." or something similar. Otherwise, there's no way that someone else's agreement with a comment provides any useful information to me.

The entirety of your content matters here, so a singular "This" will get downvoted very quickly. But if you say "This" and follow it up with something thoughtful, then what exactly is the problem?

The colloquialisms that we'll use over the course of our time on (especially on the internet) will change frequently, new ones will pop up that require some getting used to, but that's just it ... just buckle up and adjust to it.

How people choose to communicate should be up to them, not some arbitrary lingo police.

I think its use indicates someone who maybe spends more time arguing on the internet than writing code or starting businesses or whatever other incredibly-value-generating things the Platonic Form of Hacker spends his or her time doing. At steady state, most of the content in any online community is going to come from that sort of person. Not much use pretending that ain't what's starting to happen now.

Ok, my $0.02 - Agreeing with someone isn't contributing to the conversation and if you can't take the time to think of something original to say, don't say it (or face the down-vote). It would be nice to have this added to the "comments" section of the Guidelines.

Beginning a response with "I agree" or "Good point" reads pleasantly, without the nails-on-chalkboard effect of the internet-nerd-herd-mind irritating-and-head-scratching-to-regular-people nerd-convention of "This".

Stupid nerds. They seem to like to demonstrate how "non-conforming" they are, but reading sites like this, or worse, reddit, shows how readily they imitate one big nerd group.

  ... I'm the kind of person who likes doing things 
  differently, just to irk people like you. I don't see
  much value in blind adherence to tradition for
  tradition's sake. I like killing sacred cows, stirring
  the pot...

  ... I'm a radically individualistic anarcho-capitalist /
  libertarian / atheist type, so I'm just a touch outside 
  of what you might call mainstream...

The internet wasn't so meme-infested ten years ago (except for silly videos), even five years ago. I really think Reddit is to blame.

I've stopped participating in any site where the usage of internet memes is anything above negligible. Reading that crap actually makes me feel stupider.

I'm just saying, this is something that really shouldn't be bothering you. It's a convention of online conversation. It means that someone thinks you've hit the nail on the head with your point.

Example:

This. And now I'm going to say why I think your idea is cool beans and what not.

There's no way to tell if a 1-hour-old comment has more upvotes than a 30-second-old comment positioned above it on the page.

There's no way to tell if a single comment in a subthread has 0 upvotes or 100. This is the biggest problem, IMHO. Factual statements have no visible score for correctness.

There's no way to tell if a comment was upvoted for being interesting, or factually correct.

There's no way to tell if the person who upvoted your comment is the same person you replied to.

For example: I use yelp to see when stores are open/closed and if a coffee shop has wifi. I could care less about the reviews, unless one of them happens to position a specific deal I'd be interested in.

In my experience, when I start getting annoyed by anonymous users on web sites, that's more a reflection on my current state than anything else.

It feels like a sort of Internet-speak affectation (something I know a thing or two about) that wouldn't show up in spoken language or other forms of written language. I can see how that would bug people.

I doubt age has anything to do with it. I'm 38, but I don't dislike the "this" thing much at all. In fact, I do it myself sometimes.

and I frown on people using my language in a way that diverges from how I've always used it.

See, I'm the kind of person who likes doing things differently, just to irk people like you. I don't see much value in blind adherence to tradition for tradition's sake. I like killing sacred cows, stirring the pot, ruffling feathers, and reminding people that "We've always done it this way" is not a valid justification (in and of itself) for doing things a certain way.

Then again, I'm a radically individualistic anarcho-capitalist / libertarian / atheist type, so I'm just a touch outside of what you might call mainstream...

To me, it's more like "if you use words in a way that diverges from what people can reasonably expect, nobody can understand what the fuck you're saying"

Do you just stop reading the comment at the point of "This."? Oftentimes, the reason justifies use of the word.

To me, "This." == "I am incapable of formulating my own thoughts and therefore choose to fully agree with whatever that guy above me just said."

Not displaying points was a careful, considered decision. Live with it.

As an aside, if pg decides he doesn't like comments that consist of (or begin with) "This.", they would be pretty easy to penalize. ;-)

It's kind of like explicitly using the "this->" or "this." formation in C++ or Java or what have you: sure, it may seem needlessly verbose, but it usually doesn't present a major issue when parsing code and can often help make sure you are in the right area when thinking about things.

"This." is useful, provided that it isn't all that's said.

@

Sorry couldn't resist.

I'm not really bothered by it in the comments, I guess it's kind of a substitue for "agreed" or "totally".