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by corruption 5868 days ago
I'm trained with the school of thought that says "Everything before the but is ..." you can guess the rest. Read your comment with that in mind :)

I really like the voting - it's good to know when you have said something stupid. Either everyone else is wrong or you are, and the latter is pretty unlikely :)
2 comments
jacquesm 5868 days ago
Well, maybe we didn't go to the same school then ;)

There are no words in the English language that should be dismissed with prejudice, but is one of those.

I'm not a 'native' speaker (or writer), the dutch for 'but' is 'maar', and it indicates a modification of the first part of the sentence, a qualifier.

It does not negate the preceding part but it detracts from it, so I mean that to read (and I'll try to avoid the use of 'but')

I take your word for the research, HN will have some of that that, given the general level of discourse here and having read extensively in both articles written by HN'ers and the comments I have yet to see your point proven but it is bound to be true to some extent.

Better like that? ;)

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corruption 5868 days ago
Much :)

We are now quibbling over magnitudes, which is moot since there is no data either way.

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jacquesm 5868 days ago
You have my interest peaked though regarding the magnitude, and I really support your idea for an experiment.

Writing style apparently is not as easy to distinguish as we thought it was:

http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1199592

and a follow-up:

http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1203836

So the previously mentioned 'but we'll recognize people by their writing style if we obscure their ids' probably does not hold water.

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JangoSteve 5867 days ago
In my experience on HN, up- and down-voting has little to do with right and wrong. It has to do with (a) whether or not you've contributed valuable food for thought and (b) whether or not the masses agree with your opinion.

And keeping (b) in mind, realize that it is often those opinions of an individual that conflict with the masses that contribute largely to the individual's greater-than-average success.

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