[crazygringo]

It's not about you, it's about everyone else who might benefit from reading your comment. What are you taking that benefit away from them? Why do you dislike other internet users like that?

Also comments don't rot on the internet, nothing is ever "past its prime". Why do you think comments lose value to other people? In fact, there's quite likely a long tail of future users who would benefit, who are even larger than the short tail of people in the current 24h.

[Eisenstein]

This person is either really playing up their Ayn Randian philosophy or they are deluded. I think you can be somewhat relieved knowing that the comments which are deleted are probably in line with the ones made by the person today -- worthless.

[randomdata]

Absolutely they would be worthless to others. After all, if there was value available to others, others would be willing to pay for it. And that's just not going to happen for anything I am capable of writing. There is good reason why I'm the one paying for it even though it is quite common to pay others for what they write. It is not unusual at all to pay those skilled in writing for their work. For the rest of us, it's just a hobby. And that's okay. Not all work has to be for others.

[Eisenstein]

Money is just a convenient way to keep track of debt. Stop making it into some kind of proxy for all human need and utility.

[randomdata]

I said nothing of money?

Although, of course, what you say about money is true. In fact, I can see from my not deleted HN history that I wrote that money is just an IOU only three days ago. I guess there is some value in being able to look back on my work! But is it value enough?

Human nature is to be transactional. If I offer you my time to write a comment for you, I am going to expect something in return. That in return could be nothing more than the smile you give me when you read it. It doesn't have to be some elaborate, grandiose thing, but there has to be some kind of payment or one will quickly sour to the ordeal.

If I were to write for you now, what would you give me in return? I suspect nothing because there is nothing of value I could offer you with my writing. Conversely, I offer you nothing. Will you write something for me? I expect not. Why would you?

[Eisenstein]

Do you find this attitude makes your life more pleasant, or does it make it that when people at a social event find out you are on the way to join them, they sigh silently and look at the ground and make a wish that you would have gotten over your reductive, sophomoric, and joyless 'everything is a transaction' philosophy because it makes you tedious?

[johnnyanmac]

>does it make it that when people at a social event find out you are on the way to join them, they sigh silently and look at the ground

you're not making the best case yourself. You'd be the person coming that the host would spend half the party trying to separate from certain others becuase you'll just get into a huge fight over a bike shed and ruin the night for every.

A person on the internet deletes their comments. It's not that deep.

[sterlind]

even if human nature is transactional, I like having a weekly tab at the bar more than putting nickels into toilet paper dispensers.

[randomdata]

So long as I am paying for it, it is absolutely about me. I would consider offers to write for others if they see the value, but it is quite apparent that what I write does not actually provide value to others. Which is fine. I'm happy to leave that work to the professionals.

Why do you feel entitled to the work I have paid for? It is one thing if I generously offer it to you, but to expect it?

[crazygringo]

Reddit is free, you don't need to pay to write comments. You're not paying for anything. And whether future users find value is up to them to decide, not you. You can't read their minds.

And you're going out of your way to delete something you already wrote. That's extra work for you. Why do you hate the future users who might find value?

[randomdata]

There is most definitely a cost in preparing the comments I write. I have to pay for my energy, pay for the lost opportunity, and I have to pay to recoup past investments that came together to allow me to formulate the comment. As I find entertainment in writing the comments, I am willing to pay the price, but it absolutely does not come free.

Other people don't enter the picture. There is no hate towards them, they simply don't exist in the sphere the comments are created in. It is a false premise to think that they are involved.

[crazygringo]

Then why do you post comments in the first place?

It would be easier to write them and then close the tab before hitting the button to post them. If you truly only derive value from writing them and none from anybody reading them.

And then it still "costs" you to delete them, by your logic. What is the value you get from that? If it's not from a desire to remove value for others, which you claim it isn't?

[randomdata]

I would say that 90% of the entertainment is in formulating the comment. On that front, yes, writing and then closing the tab would be sufficient. However, 10% of the entertainment is in seeing the silly outputs from the forum software after pressing submit.

The forum software which outputs those silly outputs does provide value. For instance, Reddit and I established an agreement where if I pay even more of my time to look at their ads, which gives them value, they will provide me with those silly outputs, which I find valuable. It has been a mutually beneficial trade.

Should the cost of using Reddit go higher, as it seems it will, then the calculator will come out and I will have to determine if the cost is still in line with the benefit. With only 10% of the value coming from there, there isn't a whole lot room for them to play with, especially when you have HN graciously offering essentially the same service for a much lower cost.

[crazygringo]

OK, so you do post them for the benefit of replies from other people. Other people who are contributing back to you. Makes sense.

I still don't understand why you delete them afterwards when that takes effort. That has a cost, and it negatively impacts others.

[butlike]

Your bot didn't pass the Turing test.