"Winning an argument is like winning at the Special Olympics. Sure you won, but you're still retarded."
This comment is no more funny or insightful than it was 5 years ago. Worse, it discourages positive contributions as well as negative.
What's missing in reddit/digg: a way to see which side won an argument in discussions
21–26 of 26 posts
Re: What's missing in reddit/digg: a way to see which side won an argument in discussions
#22Earlier quoted context omitted.
This comment is no more funny or insightful than it was 5 years ago. Worse, it discourages positive contributions as well as negative.
Positive contributions usually don't spark arguments. Even if they're controversial or unpopular, they tend to spark discussion instead.
One of the most interesting threads I've read lately was that one where Walter Bright posted a comment about D in a thread bashing C++ programmers. His post was attacked by a few others, and the resulting argument was very interesting.
I think this is the thread: http://kerneltrap.org/mailarchive/git/2007/9/7/257355
Though I don't have time to find the specific chain of comments.
Re: What's missing in reddit/digg: a way to see which side won an argument in discussions
#23Easy. The losers are usually the ones who participate.
Wrong. Plus: You just participated.
Re: What's missing in reddit/digg: a way to see which side won an argument in discussions
#24Re: What's missing in reddit/digg: a way to see which side won an argument in discussions
#25Easy. The losers are usually the ones who participate.
Wrong. Plus: You just participated.
I did not realize this was an argument. I guess I lost.
Seriously, though, the most interesting arguments don't resolve for quite some time, if ever. For example, who was the winner in the infamous Torvalds v. Tanenbaum argument over monolithic versus micro-kernels? One could say that Torvalds "won," in the sense that Linux became far more successful than Minix. Yet, Windows and Mac OS are both based, in part, on a micro-kernel architecture, and both have a greater share of the market than Linux.
Re: What's missing in reddit/digg: a way to see which side won an argument in discussions
#26Earlier quoted context omitted.
Wrong. Plus: You just participated.
You just participated. I did not realize this was an argument. I guess I lost. Seriously, though, the most interesting arguments don't resolve for quite some time, if ever. For example, who was the winner in the infamous Torvalds v. Tanenbaum argument over monolithic versus micro-kernels? One could say that Torvalds "won," in the sense that Linux became far more successful than Minix. Yet, Windows and Mac OS are both…