[C4stor]

What happened to the HN rule of "interpret everything with the most positive interpretation possible", when this is the top voted comment ?

It seems pretty obvious that the author doesn't intend to coerce anyone into doing anything.

[shadowfox]

It is overruled by the "law of the topmost comment" - the top comment is very likely a negative take on some subpart of the topic at hand, sometimes unrelated to the actual article, worded in the strongest way possible.

[_7hzo]

Everything about your comment is just wrong, so wrong.

The Law of the Topmost Comment says nothing about the relatedness to the OP's article[1]. I would suggest you research the topic further before making any more ill-informed comments on it.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Wealth_of_Nations

[m463]

your take on his take is meta-humorous.

If your argument holds, I would expect my agreeable comment of mine to be downvoted or replaced by a comment possibly critical of your viewpoint.

[account42]

Well...

Although in general, you can't expect replies to other comments and comments on posts to follow the same patterns.

[SkyBelow]

I thought that rule was for interpreting comments to keep civil discussion. Identifying possible interpretations of what is in an article and the biases it may either imply, be sourced from, or create in others seems a worthwhile topic to discuss about an article, though care must be taken to distinguish from 'could imply' and 'does imply'.

One such use of this is when someone posts an article they have some control over, knowing how the title biases or primes a reader can be very informative if they need to make a change because of an unintended effect, given the chance of communities entirely disconnected from hacker news viewing and possibly discussing the article.

[anthony_r]

Such office hours could have a price. Given how much consultants charge it wouldn't be unreasonable to charge $500/hour (being a maintainer comes with deep knowledge).

[handoflixue]

The article mentions that - he thinks of the 25 minute sessions as more about learning how people use the software, and increasing his ability to make something cool.

But he also points out it'd be an easy opportunity to up-sell some people on a consulting session if they want features he isn't as interested in developing :)

[Qwertious]

>What happened to the HN rule of "interpret everything with the most positive interpretation possible", when this is the top voted comment ?

What makes you think this comment is doing anything except providing positive feedback?

>It seems pretty obvious that the author doesn't intend to coerce anyone into doing anything.

Subtext is weird and dangerous. Using more accurate phrasing costs nothing and potentially averts problems.

[C4stor]

> What makes you think this comment is doing anything except providing positive feedback?

It doesn't address any of the points mentioned in the article, and in fact, doesn't address the general theme of the article.

There is no subtext at all, the article is simple and clear, and one would be hard pressed to think that the author is trying to force anyone to do anything while reading it.

[handoflixue]

> Using more accurate phrasing costs nothing

The author did actually rename it now that it suddenly has a much wider audience! It's now "Open source projects: consider running office hours"

Given that, I think we can safely assume his original audience (blog regulars) didn't mind the title. I realize accuracy is only a small effort, but it IS an effort. Why spend more time on it than is necessary for the audience?

[matkoniecz]

Sorry for that.

I have forgotten about this guidelines. I will try to follow them better in future (ling is in footer and leads to https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html ).

Though my comment was at least attempt to be "this title if taken alone is problematic, maybe changing it would better" not "you are awful person and your title was bad".

It is likely that I should be formulate it better and spend more time on making it (though I admit that I expected that it will be ignored rather than upvoted to the top comment...).

[HeavyStorm]

Well, someone changed the title and that will change responses to it...

The qualifier "consider" is very important but was removed by the OP.

[orestarod]

Isn't that about comments only?

[throwawinsider]

It seems pretty obvious to me that should means should.

Pro tip: if you don't mean should, don't write should.

[Supermancho]

Another pro tip: Never use the word "should".

Avoiding reasoning about the nature of your beliefs (and why others might be subject to those beliefs) is a weakness in thinking.

"Should" is also the easiest way to create a clickbait headline to argue about because there are so many individual interpretations and following justifications of "should".

[ghaff]

Depending upon the context, "should" can run the gamut of "here's an idea that you might want to consider" to "you have a serious moral failing if you don't do things this way."

[carols10cents]

Pro tip: the best RFC is 2119 https://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc2119

[account42]

Don't you mean "Pro tip: you SHOULD read RFC 2119"

[eeZah7Ux]

The rules are rarely followed. So many times I get bunches of silent downvotes just because...

[krapp]

Unfortunately that rule only applies to comments, not voting.