It's a fine thing to counteract that with a positive comment, but if you can, please omit the snarky bits (such as in your first paragraph). I know they're tempting, but they tarnish the positivity and substance that you correctly want to see in the discussion - and in the end they "bond" (in the molecular sense) more with the negative posts than with the outright positive ones.
Your second paragraph on its own would make a much better (indeed excellent) post - and that is the best way to combat the negativity.
(I know my reply here is itself an instance of the thing I'm talking about - responding negatively to the negative bits. Sorry!)
The comments in this thread are overwhelmingly positive by now. Watch out for the contrarian dynamic! (https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=true&que...).
Needlessly negative comments tend to show up first in a thread, while positive responses emerge over time. (Why? well, I have my theories: https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=true&sor...)
It's a fine thing to counteract that with a positive comment, but if you can, please omit the snarky bits (such as in your first paragraph). I know they're tempting, but they tarnish the positivity and substance that you correctly want to see in the discussion - and in the end they "bond" (in the molecular sense) more with the negative posts than with the outright positive ones.
Your second paragraph on its own would make a much better (indeed excellent) post - and that is the best way to combat the negativity.
(I know my reply here is itself an instance of the thing I'm talking about - responding negatively to the negative bits. Sorry!)