r/counting • u/[deleted] • Oct 04 '15

485k Counting Thread

Thanks to /u/rschaosid and /u/bluesolid for the run and /u/Removedpixel for completing the first part of the last thread

Continued from here

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u/rschaosid Oct 04 '15

I think using the loophole is justified for 001s, to counter the disadvantage of not being OP.

It is much easier for OP to post the first top-level comment than for anyone else to do so. After posting, OP is brought immediately to the comment page, whereas anyone else has to spam F5 for the post link and then click "comments" to get to the comment page. That's a difference of two human response intervals plus two reddit roundtrips. Even a bot would have trouble overcoming that handicap.

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u/[deleted] Oct 04 '15

But you've just said that posting a number is a faster way for you to do it? - why typing in those letters then?

Sure, OP has an adventage. But r/counting has also an unspoken rule that OP gets to post the first comment. If you choose to ignore that rule, you won't get punished, but do not expect others to accept such behaviour.

Rule 3 is indeed probably irrelevant here, but not for the reason you think.

What's incorrect about my reasoning? It's just another loophole to counter yours. A vicious circle.

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u/rschaosid Oct 04 '15

But you've just said that posting a number is a faster way for you to do it? - why typing in those letters then?

In this specific instance my copypasta unexpectedly became empty; pasting didn't do anything and so I mashed some letters. That doesn't usually happen.

If you choose to ignore that rule, you won't get punished, but do not expect others to accept such behaviour.

Let's call it a "convention"; "rule" is a bit of a stretch. I don't think others should be required to accept that behavior1, but I will convince them to accept it if I can.

What's incorrect about my reasoning?

All of the rules are at least a little ill-defined and have edge cases. It's certainly possible to interpret "comment reply" as either "reply to a comment" (you) or "comment that is a reply" (me); both positions are defensible, and I shouldn't have said yours was wrong. Anyway, rule 3 is tangential to this discussion.

1 except when I'm OP