If there's one thing that's off-topic in this whole thread for this submission, that is this comment you posted, which is longer than the 4-comment thread that started with my initial reply to Smudge and you didn't like. You call me obnoxious, self-involved and anti-social, offending me personally. And you procede to tell me what I can or can not do, and guessing my thoughts and mindset, and deciding for other people what would discourage them from posting online. I will not respond to any other comment you may make, as you seem to be a self-proclaimed judge of online correspondence, which is not all that sane.
It doesn't show up on direct replies to oneself. Same with downvote arrow. In such cases the system automatically recuses you and you have to rely on your fellow users to correct misbehavior, or in egregious cases email hn@ycombinator.com so we can look into it.
