[garblegarble]

off-topic but: I've noticed you prefix years with a zero in your HN comments. First I thought it was just a typo, but I see you've made several comments like that. Is there some significance, or are you just raising awareness of the year 9999 problem?

[acdha]

It’s the Long Now Foundation’s convention - a bit cultish but harmless.

https://longnow.org/ideas/long-now-years-five-digit-dates-an...

[rrakow]

I think that's some "Long Now Foundation" meme.

[dcminter]

That. Personally I think it's performative nonsense, but you have to admire the commitment to it.

[kragen]

It doesn't require any special commitment because it doesn't cost me anything. Certain people do post a lot of really boring comments about it, but I'm not the one posting those comments, and I don't care about those people's opinions, so I don't care.

I don't believe I'm actually doing those people any injury, so while they're obviously free to continue requesting different formatting of my posts, I'm free to ignore them.

I think it's important for people to be able to complain about things that bother them, for the reasons described in https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44501817. In that thread, we were discussing a different commenter requesting that an author please not use AI for editing his own books, although the request was made in a particularly obnoxious fashion. Consider "Please don't play your music so loud at night", "Please don't look at my sister", or "Please don't throw your trash out your car window". But "please format your dates differently" doesn't seem like a very important request, even if it were phrased politely, to the point that it makes me (and, as I've seen, others) think less of the people who are making it.

If my date formatting really bothers them, they're free to stop reading the site. After having looked at their comment histories, I wish some of them would, because the only thing they ever post are similarly vacuous complaints. If people had to choose between reading a site where I posted and they didn't, and a site where they posted and I didn't, 100% of people would choose the former. (Others do occasionally post something worthwhile, but nothing that inspires me to wonder how I could earn their admiration.)

So, these days, I can easily ignore it.

Especially the day after this comment of mine got voted up to +151: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44491713

[avhception]

Every time I encounter it, I think to myself: ah, that guy again. Always brings a little smile to my face. Keep it up!

[kragen]

Thanks!

[dcminter]

> I don't care about those people's opinions, so I don't care.

This was stronger before you edited in the longer paragraphs telling us that you look through their comment histories.

Look, you do you, but I'd rather hear your passionate promotion of the leading zero approach since you apparently know it irritates people.

Edit: PS Isn't it interesting that the comment that you are justly proud of doesn't have any dates in it? :)

[kragen]

Well, I thought maybe I should care, even if the request was unreasonable; but then I looked at some of the irritated people's comment histories, and breathed a sigh of relief.

Generally the comments I'm proud of tend to have more dates rather than less dates, because often they either provide verifiable information about things that have happened in the past at specific times, or cite specific sources, including the publication date. I think comments like that are more valuable than comments that simply take a position or state a complaint.

Consider, for example, this overview of the historical development of delay slots in RISC architectures https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44503609, or this discussion of what GlobalFoundries' prospects for developing a 7nm node really were when they abandoned it https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44503245, or this summary of the causes for the antibacterial properties of honey and the evidence for its astounding shelf-stability https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44495658, or this brief history of the ideology of pre-Satoshi cryptocurrencies https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44471683.

These are all within the last week. I'm pleased with how each of those comments came out, and, although the last one went relatively unnoticed (probably because it was deep in a contentious thread), all of the others were very well received.

However, presumably not by the sort of people who are more interested in how other people format their comments than they are in biochemistry, archaeology, or computer architecture. Which is fine with me. Different people have different interests, and some people evidently have a very strong interest in how other people format their dates, and don't have much to contribute on topics like computer architecture. Possibly this isn't the right site for them, and if so, they'll figure that out sooner or later, and go criticize other people's comment formatting elsewhere.

Sooner, I hope, because I'm really not interested in their opinions.

[kstrauser]

I suspect it’s counterproductive, though, like deliberately not using pronouns and always referring to someone by name. The intent might be to draw attention to the author’s cause, but it’s more likely to come across that the author just writes weirdly.

[dcminter]

Eh, I also think it's harmless, and lends a certain "brand" to their posts - which are usually quite good otherwise. Better to be weird than dull, right?

[andrekandre]

idk, i personally was confused by it; i thought they were referencing some node number or referencing some other thing and got hung up on it....

[kstrauser]

I guess, unless the offputting:goodness ratio gets lopsided and makes people start ignoring them.

Frankly, something about that leading 0 makes me grit my teeth and stop reading. I can't explain why it affects me like that. Perhaps I'm the only one who does, although threads like this seem to pop up whenever they post so I don't think so. If HN had a mute button, I'd probably use it just because it annoys me to that level.

Edit: And now that we're talking about it, they seem to have the need to mention a specific year way more than most, as though deliberately looking for opportunities to draw attention to themselves. Oof. That just made it about 10x more grating to me.

[dcminter]

I do get where you're coming from; for me I think it interrupts the way I scan text - a date would be unconsciously absorbed but these stand out as abnormal artefacts requiring full attention.

[tonyedgecombe]

You aren’t the only one, it interrupts the flow when I’m reading.