[dspillett]

The downvotes on the original post are probably because the comment is being seen as off topic. Sometimes comments like that are accepted, sometimes not, I can't say I've noticed much of a patter there other than they are far less welcome on HN than, for example, Reddit.

I usually play safe and reserve side-topic comments to a post-script after something more immediately relevant (and if I don't have something to say on the thread topic, keep them to myself).

The downvotes on this one are going to be because of complaining about downvotes!