Hi all,
I recently posted https://medium.com/@pradeep_io/7-fucking-lessons-for-designers-8bd559f078bf
on hacker news. But someone flagged this stating following reason
"The swearing adds nothing, absolutely nothing, and for me it massively detracts from any message that might be there. Others may disagree, but I don't care. I'm flagging this. There's a time and place for language like this, and this is neither.
"<p>Well, I do not understand the point of the user who flagged this. I did not have any intention of disrespecting someone, neither the article has any such content/implied meaning at all.
I have following questions
1. Does flagging affects reach of my future content I share here?
2. Is it ok to add the word "fucking" to emphasize a point?
3. What am I missing here?
> 3. What am I missing here?<p>You're missing what's called "nuance". The term "Fucking" can be perfect if you use it in just the right context to accentuate what you're trying to say (but in most cases it doesn't work).<p>But in your case, you didn't use it for that purpose. You just used "fucking" for no reason. There is no other adjective it's supporting. It's just a curse (not an accent). Like how teenagers use the term to sound cool.<p>So I agree with whoever flagged you that it doesn't add anything to the article. I actually may have read your article if it didn't have "fucking" on the title, but i don't want to read something from someone who just curses at me with no reason. Just a feedback.
There many other reasons for writing: general readership, personal branding, advertising, stream of consciousness, etc. If the purpose behind writing the piece was to engage the Hacker News community, it was ineffective. One way to take that is as editorial feedback on the writing in terms how it met the expectations of the intended audience.<p>Collin is a very experienced and respected member of the Hacker News community. It is worth listening to him most of the time. This is almost certainly one of those times if the intended audience was Hacker News.<p>Finally, it is useful to experiment with different writing techniques because sometimes the results can vastly exceed expectations. Experiments sometimes don't produce the hoped for results, and that's the risk.<p>Good luck.
You're not emphasizing a point using unnecessary profanity. You are using a swear for attempted comedic value. (and if every point is emphasized, no point is emphasized)<p>Removing the profanity just makes the article a listicle which isn't good for HN anyways.