[tomhow]

Don't berate people on HN. We're here for curious conversation, not battle. Please take a moment to re-read the guidelines, and particularly note these ones:

Be kind. Don't be snarky. Converse curiously; don't cross-examine. Edit out swipes.

Comments should get more thoughtful and substantive, not less, as a topic gets more divisive.

When disagreeing, please reply to the argument instead of calling names. "That is idiotic; 1 + 1 is 2, not 3" can be shortened to "1 + 1 is 2, not 3."

Please don't fulminate. Please don't sneer...

Please don't use Hacker News for political or ideological battle. It tramples curiosity.

https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html

[troad]

I note the rule reminder, but I very respectfully raise one hell of an eyebrow at the implication that discussions about ranking the significance of dead children by skin colour ought to be conducted curiously, dispassionately and substantively.

[tomhow]

This isn’t difficult. HN has existed for nearly two decades and the guidelines have been constant for almost all of that time. Those guidelines apply no matter the topic and there is a very important reason why this line is so close to the top:

Comments should get more thoughtful and substantive, not less, as a topic gets more divisive.

If the topic is one that you’re unable to discuss without being inflammatory and belligerent, it’s not a topic you should be discussing on HN.

Being belligerent towards other commenters on a tech-focused discussion won’t do anything to address the awful realities in the most troubled times and places in the world. But avoiding that style of discussion makes all the difference to our ability to make sense of things.

It’s probably a good time to remind ourselves that this is a discussion thread about search engines, and the guidelines ask us to stay on topic and avoid generic tangents.