[dang]

HN doesn't operate by upvotes alone (https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=false&so...). Plenty of bad comments get upvoted, especially the sensational-indignant kind that the internet is flooded with. If upvotes were the only measure, HN would be an entirely different place. Actually, it would have ceased to exist a long time ago (since its purpose is to be a place for intellectual curiosity and those things are incompatible).

Therefore, in addition to considering upvotes we have guidelines to explain the intended use of the site in general: https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html, as well as moderation to try to explain it in specific cases. We run HN this way because otherwise the system would get stuck in one of its failure modes (https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=false&qu...).

In this case, posting snarky and supercilious putdowns is definitely against the intended use of HN, no matter how many upvotes they get (and they often get plenty). So please don't post those!