It looks like some people took offense with my comment but I had no reason to think that Linda Kwak is a Korean name. I can see from her profile picture on Linkedin that she is, indeed, Asian. If that's what caused the downvotes, that people felt offended, thinking I was making an ethnic joke, then I'm really sorry.
>If that's what caused the downvotes, that people felt offended, thinking I was making an ethnic joke, then I'm really sorry.
No, we get that it was a bird quack joke. It's just that jokes and puns don't really add to the discussion, and are better suited to places like reddit.
If that is the case, then the downvotes are misplaced. The HN Guidelines say nothing about humour (good or bad) in comments. Perhaps some users feel that joking is forbidden because we are all serious and important scientists and engineers here, but that is just a personal and subjective opinion.
Now, finding that my joke was a bad joke, I can understand and appreciate, but that business about "this isn't reddit" has got to stop. We are not reddit. Everyone knows that. Reddit probably knows that. The HN guidelines in fact have something to say about that sort of misconception. There's no reason not to crack a joke now and then. To be a serious person doesn't mean to have a stick up one's arse.
Edit: Anyway the point is really not the karma and the downvotes. I was simply worried that my joke was taken as targeting Korean people, which was not at all in my mind. If someone got offended because they don't like people joking on HN, well, guys, are there more of you than my karma? If not, tough.
HN Guideline: Please don't comment about the voting on comments. It never does any good, and it makes boring reading.
It's all about signal to noise ratio here. You weren't the only one that posted the same obvious joke and all the comments were downvoted. No big deal.
On the topic of HN guidelines, the following can be construed as particularly snarky:
If someone got offended because they don't like people joking on HN, well, guys, are there more of you than my karma? If not, tough.
HN Guideline: Be civil. Don't say things you wouldn't say face-to-face. Don't be snarky.
Just don't joke about people's names OK? Best case scenario people are going to think you are unfunny. Average case scenario, people will think you're racist. She could have been white married to an Asian man and what you said would still have come off as quite racist.
I'm telling you my honest estimation of the reaction of educated people to your comment. You have obviously incorrectly estimated the response to your comment, maybe you are also incorrectly estimating what most people would think about it?
