[nailer]

The person is being incredibly rude:

- pointing out that I didn't explicitly say 'negative things' rather than 'things' is a bizarre and immature nitpick

- pointing out that other people also share credit for Elon's innovations - my comment never made stated that Elon deserves exclusive credit for this, this is a straw man

- including zero supporting arguments for their assertion that fraud and abuse wasn't discovered

- equating helping disabled people interact with the world to helping a single disabled person with a task.

...as the comment you're responding to points out.

[angoragoats]

OK. I wouldn't call this rude, much less "incredibly rude," perhaps the word I'd use is "blunt." But whatever. I continue to wish there was a "block this user" feature on this site.

[Supermancho]

Some people just want to frame every statement as an argument, which is not a compelling approach to a discussion. This understanding cannot be accepted by many people, because they are always considered more informed or competent by their peers. It's rarely worth engaging in replies to people on forums for this reason. It's especially true of randoms who demand their own personal standards of respect.

[nailer]

> It's especially true of randoms who demand their own personal standards of respect.

Avoiding strawmen and nitpicks, and the need to provide supporting arguments in a discussion are fairly widely recognised.

It seems odd you would think that they are unique to the person that is disagreeing with you.

[nailer]

If someone writes a detailed reply, replying ‘no’ is rude. Straw man arguments are incredibly disrespectful, and most people would do better if they had participated in a high school debating class.

Hacker news indeed needs a block button.

[angoragoats]

> If someone writes a detailed reply, replying ‘no’ is rude.

100% disagree, and that’s not what happened here anyway.

> Straw man arguments are incredibly disrespectful, and most people would do better if they had participated in a high school debating class.

HN is not a formal debate, and even if it were, I’m not sure that what the other poster said is a strawman. My unsolicited advice would be to dial back your expectations of the level of discourse you’ll get from others on this site (I had to do the same, a while back!)

[nailer]

It’s a technical site. It’s reasonable for technical discussions to have professionalism and adult behaviour. Judging by moderation on angoragoats comment it seems that others feel the same way.

[angoragoats]

> It’s reasonable for technical discussions to have professionalism and adult behaviour.

I agree. My point is that I believe the comment you got upset about was in fact not as rude or childish as you’re making it out to be, and perhaps looking at it through that lens would mean you’d come off as less reactionary in the future. Have a good day.

[nailer]

Your comment never provided any supporting arguments so you’re unlikely to convince me or anyone else to expect less from HN.

Your account is also new, so I (and it seems others) don’t think you should be giving advice about how to interact on HN.

Thank you, I will.