What HN users don't mean to be
Looking through this was interesting and fun.<p>I'm surprised at some of the comments that posit intent doesn't matter in communication. Intent matters a great deal: a question can be sarcastically rhetorical or earnest, a comment can be blunt-but-helpful or simply meant to hurt, a reply can be a defensive knee-jerk or a clarification of position. It's possible for the same string of words to be either of those alternatives, the choice made only by intent of the writer.<p>In physical communication there are many cues to indicate the intent of the speaker. Writers must provide those cues intentionally.<p>"I don't mean to be" is often (not always) lazy and meaningless, of course, but that doesn't imply intent doesn't matter.