It’s not really about who the target is, it’s about the kind of conversations we want to have here. The guidelines ask us to converse curiously, avoid fulmination, and to avoid internet tropes. When we depart from that to vent at a megacorp, it has no effect on the corporation but does have the effect of making this place more miserable.
There are plenty of opportunities to critique the megacorps when the topic is something they’ve actually done wrong, and we have many discussions about those cases.
My phrasing might be off putting and even against guidelines but, even through jest, the idea itself still remains : Microsoft does have a history of claiming a lot more than they did. It's a brilliant, albeit illegal, series of business decisions but it has not invented as much as it claims it had.
Can you please just follow the guidelines? You can make any point if it’s on-topic and expressed according to the site’s intended spirit. We can’t keep debating whether the guidelines apply to a specific topic. You can’t run a forum that way.
I'm not going to blindly follow guidelines if I believe they are unjust. I'd rather be banned from a forum that has oppressive guidelines than be a "good" netizen of a bad place. If I can't openly criticize corporations then maybe HN isn't for me.
It’s fine to criticize corporations, thoughtfully. It happens all the time here. And YC exists to challenge major corporations and continues to work hard every day to help startups challenge them. My request to you has nothing to do with criticizing corporations and everything to do with posting lame comments that drag this place down and do nothing at all to diminish corporations.
Anyway, apologies for the whole thread, I'll be more mindful both of the guidelines and how to provide a better avenue for meaningful conversations, thank you for trying to make this a better place.
Many thanks :) We know it can be hard to stay on the right side of the guidelines and we don't expect everyone to perfect (how boring!) but we just need people to keep them in mind and do their best.
Honestly I think labeling the comment (which is justified and involves a pun, sure might be dad-joke level but still) as "lame" is more toxic, or bring the forum down, than mine but OK, maybe I have a bias.
There are plenty of opportunities to critique the megacorps when the topic is something they’ve actually done wrong, and we have many discussions about those cases.