If you don't like the phrase "personal attack", I can put it this way instead: please don't post pejoratives using personal language.
In the context of moderating an internet forum, we have to go by effects, not intent: https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=true&que..., for a number of reasons: (1) intent isn't observable or predictable; (2) effects are both observable and predictable; and (3) it's effects which ruin threads.
Everyone always feels like they're the one being singled out and treated unfairly—this isn't a reliable feeling, it's a universal bias. If other comments broke the site guidelines as badly as you did, and the mods didn't say anything, that's because we didn't see them, not because we're against you.
In the context of moderating an internet forum, we have to go by effects, not intent: https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=true&que..., for a number of reasons: (1) intent isn't observable or predictable; (2) effects are both observable and predictable; and (3) it's effects which ruin threads.
Everyone always feels like they're the one being singled out and treated unfairly—this isn't a reliable feeling, it's a universal bias. If other comments broke the site guidelines as badly as you did, and the mods didn't say anything, that's because we didn't see them, not because we're against you.
https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=true&que...
https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=false&qu...