"With the advent of the internet, all caps in messages became closely identified with "shouting" or attention-seeking behaviour and is considered very rude."
Or in this case it was simply a matter of drawing attention for any who appreciated our entry to show appreciation by helping us win. Considering this was my project, I felt obliged to bring attention to something I felt warranted it. I was neither being rude, nor would it be rude in person (as is often emphasized in the guidelines) to speak loudly in a crowded noisy room filled with people gathering to appreciate what you've built. I often host developer events, and as a host this type of behavior is not only not rude, but often necessary and appreciated. The notion that all caps are "very rude" is at best contextual. In this case, it would seem to be ignorance on the part of the admins to recognize such a purpose and intention.
However, it would appear I stand corrected as I missed the following:
"Please don't use uppercase for emphasis." [1]
However, I stand by the ridiculousness of banning a sincere contributer that's bringing traffic to the site solely due to (positive constructive) ignorance of the rules.
Would you kick a guest out from your home without warning for temporarily speaking loudly in good intention, and exclude them from all future discussions? It would seem in this case HN violates their own rule regarding civility treating people online as you would in a face to face conversation, and please don't give me the excuse of this being necessary in order to deal with spambots. Such an argument defends rudeness and laziness as a better algorithm could easily be written.
However, it would appear I stand corrected as I missed the following:
"Please don't use uppercase for emphasis." [1]
However, I stand by the ridiculousness of banning a sincere contributer that's bringing traffic to the site solely due to (positive constructive) ignorance of the rules.
Would you kick a guest out from your home without warning for temporarily speaking loudly in good intention, and exclude them from all future discussions? It would seem in this case HN violates their own rule regarding civility treating people online as you would in a face to face conversation, and please don't give me the excuse of this being necessary in order to deal with spambots. Such an argument defends rudeness and laziness as a better algorithm could easily be written.
[1] http://ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html