Tell HN: The Art of Disagreement (HN Guidelines)

Disagreement on HN has increasingly been expressed with ad hominem attacks on a user; that is, attempting to prove one's argument by telling a user that he is a "moron," "idiot," or any other number of slurs. Taking a look at the bottom half of most comment pages turns up a troubling amount of this.

So, in the interest of keeping our community healthy, and our debate productive, I think it's useful to reiterate one of the few rules PG wrote for this site:

"When disagreeing, please reply to the argument instead of calling names. E.g. 'That is an idiotic thing to say; 1 + 1 is 2, not 3 can be shortened to '1 + 1 is 2, not 3.'"

Sometimes, you'll see a post that you're convinced is wrong, or dumb. And to explain exactly why it's wrong would take too long, so it becomes tempting to tell the poster that he or she is an idiot for thinking such a thing.

But that's an act of intellectual laziness, because there is no way for anyone to learn from the exchange. Either disagree and explain your position, or don't post. There is no productive middle.