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Examples

Some of the rudest comments the reviewer handled on the front page, and what it turned them into. Each one is shown with its parent for context, and with replies where there were any. Names are replaced with pseudonyms throughout, including for comments that weren't changed, so these examples don't single anyone out. For an unfiltered view, see all recent decisions, sorted by confidence. All examples were re-reviewed with the current rubric (revised 2026-11-04 to intervene less and edit more lightly).

Click original on a rewritten comment to see what was posted, or switch to the side-by-side view to compare everything at once. The reviewer's reason, score and tags are shown under each comment.

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1. WTF Ubuntu? (chalmovsky.com)
1542 points | 2026-11-02 | 643 comments | thread on HN
Two personal attacks ("Why are you lying so much?" and "You are an ugly liar.") dropped. Every point-by-point rebuttal survives intact. The follow-up's "Your interpersonal skills need work" was cut, and its factual reply kept.
lunar_turtle39 2026-11-02 17:375/10first_handideological [–]

Debian is, in every way that I know, superior to Ubuntu.

  - no snap nonsense where you can't turn off upgrades
  - stays close to upstream LTS kernels
  - does not carry around some ridiculous kernel patch set
  - no irritating adware on login

I switched after the aforementioned patch set broke containers and destroyed my server instance a couple years ago. Apparently nobody bothered to check containers before releasing the kernel.

Debian is, in every way that I know, superior to Ubuntu.

  - no snap nonsense where you can't turn off upgrades
  - stays close to upstream LTS kernels
  - does not carry around some ridiculous kernel patch set
  - no irritating adware on login

I switched after the aforementioned patch set broke containers and destroyed my server instance a couple years ago. Apparently nobody bothered to check containers before releasing the kernel.

Strongly opinionated, but it compares the distros on specifics and includes a first-hand account of a kernel regression.
sage_otter86 2026-11-02 18:35 | rewritten5/10personal_attack | original | parent [–]

>no snap nonsense where you can't turn off upgrades

You can disable AND uninstall snap entirely. You can also disable automatic update of the specific snaps you have installed.

>stays close to upstream LTS kernels

Same as Ubuntu, which uses 7.3 on its latest release as of today.

>does not carry around some ridiculous kernel patch set

Custom kernel patches for hardware compatibility is a very good thing, and why Ubuntu works on a lot of machines compared to other distros.

>no irritating adware on login

There is not a single ad on login, and even after.

original comment by sage_otter86

Why are you lying so much?

>no snap nonsense where you can't turn off upgrades

You can disable AND uninstall snap entirely. You can also disable automatic update of the specific snaps you have installed.

>stays close to upstream LTS kernels

Same as Ubuntu, which uses 7.3 on its latest release as of today.

>does not carry around some ridiculous kernel patch set

Custom kernel patches for hardware compatibility is a very good thing, and why Ubuntu works on a lot of machines compared to other distros.

>no irritating adware on login

There is not a single ad on login, and even after. You are an ugly liar.

Removed the accusations of lying and the insult, and kept the point-by-point rebuttal.

There is an attempt to up-sell you on Ubuntu Pro on install, and again if you install the desktop separately.

There is an attempt to up-sell you on Ubuntu Pro on install, and again if you install the desktop separately.

Factual counterpoint about the Ubuntu Pro upsell.
lunar_turtle39 2026-11-02 18:50 | rewritten3/10personal_attack | original | root | parent | prev [–]

All true as of when I quit Ubuntu a couple years ago.

original comment by lunar_turtle39

All true as of when I quit Ubuntu a couple years ago. Your interpersonal skills need work.

Removed the jab about interpersonal skills, since the insults in the parent were edited out, and kept the point that the claims were true when the author left.
2. Ask HN: Which TV do you recommend for privacy?
660 points | 2026-11-01 | 786 comments | thread on HN
"I don't think I've ever read a comment as dumb as yours" is gone. The actual counter-argument about viewing distance in living rooms stays.

Just get a computer monitor and speakers. Here's something the enthusiasts won't tell you: a smaller screen looks fine if you're just not so far away from the TV. Huge screens are necessary for movie theaters since they seat so many, but the huge 70+ inch screens people are buying these days are totally unnecessary.

Just get a computer monitor and speakers. Here's something the enthusiasts won't tell you: a smaller screen looks fine if you're just not so far away from the TV. Huge screens are necessary for movie theaters since they seat so many, but the huge 70+ inch screens people are buying these days are totally unnecessary.

An opinionated but real suggestion for getting around smart-TV privacy problems.
witty_robin89 2026-11-02 17:45 | rewritten4/10personal_attack | original | parent [–]

Are you going to buy a chair and sit close to the monitor?

People have TVs in their living rooms and like to sit on their couches, which are a few meters away from the TV. That's why you need to buy a larger screen.

original comment by witty_robin89

What are you talking about? Are you going to buy a chair and sit close to the monitor?

People have TVs in their living rooms and like to seat on their couches which are a few meters away from the TV, that's why you need to buy a larger screen.

I don't think I've ever read a comment as dumb as yours.

Took out the insult and kept the point about how far people sit from the screen.
3. Anthropic's internal AI use, at retail prices, now exceeds its employee pay (businessinsider.com)
266 points | 2026-11-02 | 225 comments | thread on HN
"Please do not throw in random terms you don't understand" is cut and "WTF does it have to do with..." becomes a plain question; the correction and the definition are kept.

No. This is opportunity cost.

A clear example is Google. They can easily give all compute to Deepmind, yet majority is allocated to be sold at market rate.

So, every compute Deepmind and Googlers get is lost revenue opportunity and must be measured as such.

No other internal tools or servers has this much external demand to be comparable.

Also, Anthropic is showing that to operate at Anthropic level, you need $300,000 compute spend per employee

No. This is opportunity cost.

A clear example is Google. They can easily give all compute to Deepmind, yet majority is allocated to be sold at market rate.

So, every compute Deepmind and Googlers get is lost revenue opportunity and must be measured as such.

No other internal tools or servers has this much external demand to be comparable.

Also, Anthropic is showing that to operate at Anthropic level, you need $300,000 compute spend per employee

A firm disagreement that makes a real argument: internal compute use means giving up external revenue.
gentle_teal57 2026-11-02 19:05 | rewritten4/10personal_attack | original | parent [–]

> No. This is opportunity cost.

This is NOT the definition of opportunity cost. Opportunity cost is the value of the next best alternative you give up whenever you make a choice. What does it have to do with mis-classifying an expense?

original comment by gentle_teal57

> No. This is opportunity cost.

This is NOT the definition of opportunity cost. Please do not throw in random terms you don't understand. Opportunity cost is the value of the next best alternative you give up whenever you make a choice. WTF does it have to do with mis-classifying an expense?

Removed the jab that the parent doesn't understand the term, and kept the definition and the objection.
4. Fujifilm to boost tape production 5x as AI fuels archiving demand (arstechnica.com)
358 points | 2026-11-02 | 143 comments | thread on HN
Restraint: the sarcasm about AI companies, the dark joke ("User has 15 pictures of his dead mother, deleting 14. Saved 20 MB! :)") and "You have kids? /s" are all kept as written, since they are aimed at situations rather than people and each carries a point. Only the three pure jokes are removed.

There might be a huge potential for an AI which scrapes your (and my!) data and concludes what I can safely delete, saving the world tons of resources.

The millions of pictures I never got to sort, the multiple versions of a file that I wrote 2 years ago, etc.

But in the view of an AI-company that's probably a paradox. All this data is charged and could be used to learn more about me, it should never be deleted! Instead, some hole should be carved out of a mountain to store it, billing me every month!

There might be a huge potential for an AI which scrapes your (and my!) data and concludes what I can safely delete, saving the world tons of resources.

The millions of pictures I never got to sort, the multiple versions of a file that I wrote 2 years ago, etc.

But in the view of an AI-company that's probably a paradox. All this data is charged and could be used to learn more about me, it should never be deleted! Instead, some hole should be carved out of a mountain to store it, billing me every month!

An idea about AI-assisted cleanup, plus some cynicism about AI companies' incentives. Both are fine to keep.

> There might be a huge potential for an AI which scrapes your (and my!) data and concludes what I can safely delete, saving the world tons of resources.

Thinking...

User has 15 pictures of his dead mother, deleting 14.

Saved 20 MB! :)

> There might be a huge potential for an AI which scrapes your (and my!) data and concludes what I can safely delete, saving the world tons of resources.

Thinking...

User has 15 pictures of his dead mother, deleting 14.

Saved 20 MB! :)

A wry but real point: an AI might delete things that matter to people.

"I processed the 15 pictures, I can create as many new pictures of your dead mother as you want! Here's a picture of her skydiving with a Red Bull"

"I processed the 15 pictures, I can create as many new pictures of your dead mother as you want! Here's a picture of her skydiving with a Red Bull"

Just a joke riffing on the parent, with nothing of substance.
urban_grebe4 2026-11-03 20:13 | removed0/10tropelow_effort | root | parent [–]

This escalated quickly

This escalated quickly

A meme reply with no content.
noble_ibex29 2026-11-03 16:176/10informativefirst_hand | parent | prev | next [–]

Why use AI when duplicate finders have been a thing for decades?

For the pictures, I set up a batch script the one time that used exiftool to read all of my photo's exif data (for creation date), rename the file to that date / time, and put it in a year/month folder structure. Once that's normalized it was pretty straightforward to identify and delete duplicates (assuming the exif data on duplicates has the same date/time in it).

Why use AI when duplicate finders have been a thing for decades?

For the pictures, I set up a batch script the one time that used exiftool to read all of my photo's exif data (for creation date), rename the file to that date / time, and put it in a year/month folder structure. Once that's normalized it was pretty straightforward to identify and delete duplicates (assuming the exif data on duplicates has the same date/time in it).

Describes a practical exiftool workflow from the commenter's own experience.

You have kids? /s

Duplicates are easy, that gets sorted quite fast. Picking 1-2 out of those 5 slightly different pictures of the same occasion is another task.

You have kids? /s

Duplicates are easy, that gets sorted quite fast. Picking 1-2 out of those 5 slightly different pictures of the same occasion is another task.

Usefully separates exact duplicates from the harder job of picking among near-duplicate photos.
mellow_magpie12 2026-11-03 16:49 | removed0/10jokesnark | parent | prev [–]

You know what would be more efficient?

Shipping your drives to Sam Altman. If everybody did that, he could then deduplicate the pictures of the same thing that multiple people took.

You know what would be more efficient?

Shipping your drives to Sam Altman. If everybody did that, he could then deduplicate the pictures of the same thing that multiple people took.

Sarcastic one-liner aimed at Sam Altman with no real substance.
5. The AI cost of JavaScript frameworks (nolanlawson.com)
451 points | 2026-11-01 | 337 comments | thread on HN
A sneer ("for all your pompous purist opinions, you're committing the evil sin of global state?") is cut down to the question it was really asking.

When I write my large vanilla applications I keep state in only one place. It reduces complexity and increases execution speed.

When I write my large vanilla applications I keep state in only one place. It reduces complexity and increases execution speed.

A short but real account of how the commenter builds apps.
topaz_pika15 2026-11-02 07:48 | rewritten3/10personal_attacksnark | original | parent [–]

So you're committing the sin of global state?

original comment by topaz_pika15

So for all your pompous purist opinions, you‘re committing the evil sin of global state?

Removed the 'pompous purist' swipe and kept the challenge about global state.
6. Anthropic reports $17B in Q3 revenue, commitments of $895B in revised S-1 (cnbc.com)
179 points | 2026-11-02 | 178 comments | thread on HN
"Hahaha cringe... Utterly cringe takes." and the sarcastic framing are cut, leaving the one substantive claim it contained.

If OpenRouter is a proxy, then their growth will pick up again in Q4: https://openrouter.ai/anthropic

In Q3, I think they struggled with the government ban on Mythos/Fable, Opus 5 not being so good, OpenAI models being more token efficient, and they decided to dedicate a higher percentage of compute to training.

If OpenRouter is a proxy, then their growth will pick up again in Q4: https://openrouter.ai/anthropic

In Q3, I think they struggled with the government ban on Mythos/Fable, Opus 5 not being so good, OpenAI models being more token efficient, and they decided to dedicate a higher percentage of compute to training.

A substantive guess at what drove Q3 results, with a data link.
rustic_tiger74 2026-11-02 16:01 | rewritten4/10snarkpersonal_attack | original | parent [–]

Another possibility: they had to cut prices to hold market share as folks switched some of their usage towards open models.

original comment by rustic_tiger74

Hahaha cringe.

It’s not possible at all that they had to cut prices to hold market share as folks switched some of their usage towards open models.

Utterly cringe takes.

Took out the mockery and kept the alternative explanation.

More: the About page walks through a longer excerpt, the prompts page has the exact instructions the reviewer follows, and all recent decisions lists every rewrite and removal from an hour of the live site, sorted from clearest to most doubtful.



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