Thanks to the fair-minded users of Hacker News for downvoting this bullshit. When I encounter a comment like this, it's a relief to discover that the community immune system already rejected it.
When you see a comment that is truly toxic for HN, flag it by clicking "link" to go to the item page and then "flag" at the top.
Edit: Since I know some people have concerns about unpopular opinions being suppressed, perhaps I should add that it's not an unpopular opinion which is the problem here. It's the trollish content and vicious tone.
He's not just trolling and vicious, but he's wrong too. The other day, I brought up the fact that Michael Bay had gotten the design of the ninja turtles totally wrong in the new movie. And she said: "I always kinda liked TMNT, but it was a 'boy' thing so I never really got into it a kid. I mean, I guess they had April."
So yes, gender matters. Kids want to be able to relate to their heroes, and gender is a deep part of identity. And admitting that gender matters isn't sexist.
I wonder how many civil, patiently explained responses that live up to your expectations for HN standards would have appeared if the request was for a male-only engineer.
It doesn't matter. Trying to measure these things for who's worse, etc., is a guaranteed way to fall straight back into raging. What we need are "civil, patiently explained responses" all around.
I see your point, and have wondered about it myself. This seems like a case where laziness will show the way. If it's important, it will eventually be obvious that it needs implementing. There are a lot of other features to build.
I thought for a while about only making mod comments from this account, but that doesn't seem right. I was a community member and HN user long, long before I was a moderator.
This comment is also out of line. Two wrongs do not make a right, and personal attacks are absolutely unwelcome on Hacker News. It doesn't matter how provocative the other person was being.
When you see something provocative on HN, please reflect before responding. Fighting poison with poison makes things worse. Please either add comments that make things better, or no comments.
When responding to a toxic comment, re-read what you just posted to make sure that you didn't slip up and make a toxic comment yourself. If you did, edit out the acidity until your comment is neutral; or simply delete it. That's what I do, and I can tell you from long experience that this approach works.
Off topic, but thanks for wading in and describing the moderator viewpoint, even if it isn't fun. :) I think more moderator transparency is helpful, even if it ends up being something I disagree with[1].
[1] Not anything that I saw in this thread, just theoretically.
Sure. It's an experiment to see if we can help get things on track by putting feedback into the system. Also, the community needs a good dose of responsiveness, and I'm able to do that now.
My answer to the no-fun bit is that it's temporary. :)
lol. nice try. but if it would be funnier if you posted the same post, word for word, but changing the genders. that would show the knew jerk reactions going on in this community better than your also sexist comment.
This comment is nowhere near as bad as the others, but it's still bad. It's fluff that contains no information; it's playing with being provocative, and that link! don't get me started.
Comments become more gray and slightly less readable as they accumulate down votes. If you're using something that scrapes the site you might not be able to see it but it's visible on the main news.ycombinator.com site.
