You clearly missed the job ad a few months back explicitly requesting a "brogrammer" to fit in with the company culture. Sexting is also quite real (why would MMS be the one medium by which people choose not to send naked pictures of themselves?). So unless you have good proof of rainbow parties and jenkem, you're way off.
Note for my rather ignorant downvoting friends: This was a real job ad from a YC company. It used that exact phrasing. Downvoting me doesn't make it stop being real. Perhaps you should deal with your feelings instead of clicking down arrows to make comments go away when they make you feel uncomfortable.
I admit I'm guilty of that at times, but in this particular case, I was not complaining about being downvoted — I was suggesting that the downvoters reconsider their motivations. It was a sincere comment. You will note that nowhere in my comment did I whine about the unfairness of the downvotes or bemoan my lost magical fairy points.
I don't know if I'd venture to call it engrossing reading, but at any rate, I think it's less boring than recitations of the guidelines.
You threw insults at whoever downmodded you -- you baselessly asserted that they're ignorant, hiding from their feelings, and only downmodding you because you made them uncomfortable. That's a pretty dramatic reaction to someone taking away some of your imaginary internet points.
Sure, it's not complaining or whining per se, but it has exactly the same effect -- whining and insults are, by their nature, intended to provoke an emotional reaction, and so drive the conversation further away from calm & reasonable. And calm, reasonable conversation is what sets HN apart from the rest of the 'net.
There was nothing to disagree with. What I said was entirely factual. The only conceivable reason to downvote without comment (aside from being utterly irrational) was being upset by those facts.
And yes, I was upset — that people were reacting out of ignorance. It wasn't that I was downvoted, but what the downvotes signified, so I wanted to particularly call attention to the secondary issue I had observed.
Okay, fair enough. I've let frustration at people on the internet adversely affect my replies far too many times myself. I know XKCD is terribly cliché, but I've taken to keeping "Internet Argument" [http://xkcd.com/438/] in mind. I find it helps ... ish.
I agree with the nobility of wanting to call people on inappropriate downmodding ... it just doesn't usually work as an edit to the downmodded post. No matter how hard you try, it'll almost always sound like either whining or agression. Just like trying to point people to the guidelines almost always sounds like rudeness or condescension. Sometimes you just can't win. ;)
... you know, on any other online community, I'd expect us to be flinging crap at each other like angry monkeys at this point. Even the disagreements on HN are refreshing.
