I don't like it but am more accepting of it when it is followed by a paragraph or so of useful content that the parent post did not include (for example, another argument supporting the same conclusion).
Ask HN: Please stop "This."
61–70 of 80 posts
Re: Ask HN: Please stop "This."
#62Re: Ask HN: Please stop "This."
#63This.
"This." is so last-decade. Now we use CoffeeScript:
@
Re: Ask HN: Please stop "This."
#64[deleted]
Re: Ask HN: Please stop "This."
#65Mixed feelings when it is the precursor to a cogent, interesting comment. Agree completely to stopping it when it forms the entire content of a comment. Not displaying points was a careful, considered decision. Live with it. As an aside, if pg decides he doesn't like comments that consist of (or begin with) "This.", they would be pretty easy to penalize. ;-)
How often do you see posts of just "This." that aren't downvoted to gray?
Re: Ask HN: Please stop "This."
#66Earlier quoted context omitted.
Others' opinions are a litmus test that saves me a lot of time in the long run. I simply don't have the bandwidth to go deep on everything that hits my radar.
Which is why an 'ambiguous' vote is a good system. It provides you just the right amount of information: "a lot of people think this is worth your time to investigate." Nothing more, nothing less.
And if I could see that vote, that would mean something. But votes are invisible here.
Re: Ask HN: Please stop "This."
#67Earlier quoted context omitted.
Others' opinions are a litmus test that saves me a lot of time in the long run. I simply don't have the bandwidth to go deep on everything that hits my radar.
Which is why an 'ambiguous' vote is a good system. It provides you just the right amount of information: "a lot of people think this is worth your time to investigate." Nothing more, nothing less.
This is only true if 'ambiguous' is synonymous with 'exactly matching my own criteria'. Usually, it isn't.
Re: Ask HN: Please stop "This."
#68It's better to use grammatically correct and conventionally accepted statements. Beginning a response with "I agree" or "Good point" reads pleasantly, without the nails-on-chalkboard effect of the internet-nerd-herd-mind irritating-and-head-scratching-to-regular-people nerd-convention of "This". Stupid nerds. They seem to like to demonstrate how "non-conforming" they are, but reading sites like this, or worse, reddit…
And the user "mindcrime", commenting elsewhere in this thread, is a fine specimen for my above points:
... I'm the kind of person who likes doing things
differently, just to irk people like you. I don't see
much value in blind adherence to tradition for
tradition's sake. I like killing sacred cows, stirring
the pot...
... I'm a radically individualistic anarcho-capitalist /
libertarian / atheist type, so I'm just a touch outside
of what you might call mainstream...
Re: Ask HN: Please stop "This."
#69Maybe it's shorthand for "{this()}" ?
Sorry couldn't resist.
I'm not really bothered by it in the comments, I guess it's kind of a substitue for "agreed" or "totally".
Re: Ask HN: Please stop "This."
#70Are there actually a significant number of posts which consist of just a single "This"? Or are you making a statement against the use of that as an opening line before someone adds their two cents. If the former I might suggest it has something to with the fact that commenting is the only visible form of 'voting' on HN now that comment scores are hidden. If the latter, I am completely ambivalent. Its a popular turn o…
I had to read a couple comments in this thread before I even understood what "this" was/is. I think I would have recognized what the "this" phenomenon was if I had come across it in a number of hn posts.
I can not recall ever seeing it in a thread and I read hn somewhat frequently. The only thing I can think of is that there is a certain subculture that uses "this" and that I do not read the stories that this subculture is interested in. Does anyone have any examples?