To be frank, "/s" would have totally ruined it for everyone else.
I'm assuming that you simply didn't read past the first paragraph? (That's fine, I bet we all do that way too often here) I mean, I have a hard time believing that you really can't tell that a post that states that everybody uses FORTRAN isn't serious.
I care because HN has a way of ruining satire and sarcasm this way. These are only the delightful stylistic devices that they are when you don't say that it's satire (resp sarcasm). I truly wish we'd all "/s" a little less, not more :-)
I have run into this a few times when I've posted a link (where it seemed amusing and relevant to a discussion) to this classic video of Australian Senator Bob Collins discussing an environmental mishap:
Invariably, someone replies with a comment like "People should be aware that this is not actually an Australian senator, it is the comedian John Clarke impersonating one."
Every. Single. Time.
As if it wouldn't be obvious after watching the first few minutes of the video!
What ever happened to the fun of not realizing something is satire until you're partway into it?
> To be frank, "/s" would have totally ruined it for everyone else.
Yes and no. Here on HN I see it everyday: good on-topic jokes get downvoted.
I suspect this happens because when people are in "HN mode" there comes a sort of earnestness into their state that makes it hard to detect other tonalities.
P.S. I needed the FORTRAN bit until it dawned on me…
I don’t think it’s fair to assume that there’s a higher incidence of autism on HN than elsewhere (bad social skills can also occur in neurotypical people), but hot damn does it really bug me that HN has such a hard time with snark.
It's not just snark—try dropping a colloquial "all" or "none" in a context where that's clearly what it is, and watch ten people rush to correct you that "well, technically..."
Or even carefully qualified statements! I think folks here drop "most" and "typically" and similar words as they read. You have to write poorly, qualifying everything three times and disavowing a bunch of stuff you obviously aren't saying or even implying anyway, to make sure you don't get a bunch of pointless comments.
...hot damn does it really bug me that HN has such a hard time with snark.
Yeah, I've noticed that when I get sarcastic or snarky, it's very often an invitation to being downvoted. I can't tell if it's because people don't get the sarcasm or snarkiness, get it but are offended that I'm using it at all (especially without an "/s"), or are offended that I'm being snarky about [insert sacred technolibertarian cow here]. :)
No, not really, I read the whole post. And the FORTRAN reference was weird, but there are weirder things people post (and believe), and when writing, people do make mistakes. Thinking back, it should have been the clue, but it wasn't. And judging by the other answers, I am not the only one who was fooled by the tone.
That said, if you feel like `/s` is ruining the sarcasm for you, the solution is pretty simple. GreaseMonkey [0] should be able to remove it very easily, while adding it would be _a bit_ more challenging.
> No, not really, I read the whole post. And the FORTRAN reference was weird, but there are weirder things people post (and believe)
True. I'm sometimes a source for similarly controversial statements. However, the following line should suffice to indicate the facetiousness of the post:
> This is the same reason that everyone uses FORTRAN.
Everyone does not use FORTRAN, and in fact it is so uncommonly used that it is ridiculous anyone would think otherwise. There are probably quite a lot of people in this industry who've never even heard of FORTRAN.
This is a common form of sarcasm in English, to counter an argument (programming languages should be English-only because there'd be too much fragmentation otherwise) by presenting the same argument in the context of something obviously untrue (that's why everyone uses FORTRAN).
