Wow. Don't think I've had a comment with negative points on HN before. Curious as to why the downvotes. I was attempting to point out that I did not consider what I said in the original comment to be a hard and fast rule.
Is the objection that the way I said it was too disrespectful (no offense was intended, hence the :-) )? Disagreeing with the original statement (it might have downvotes too, but maybe more upvotes are hiding that)? Too obvious? Something else?
If you feel compelled to put a smiley face after a sentence to make it more agreeable, it's a sign that you were uncomfortable with the tone of the sentence. Adding a smiley just comes across as passive aggressive or condescending. Just rewrite the original sentence so that you're comfortable with the tone, and omit the smiley.
