There’s nothing wrong with the post. I basically agree, but I don’t see it as front page HN stuff.
To the decorative text behind the kitty, I would add that it's almost always helpful to include some form of praise and redirect, for example, "The current approach of doing X has worked well, but aspect Y could be improved by doing Z."
The way I see it, there should be room for small neat articles, even if they are not announcements of billion dollar projects. I know HN has changed over the years, and it probably used to have more of this stuff. But I don't think there is anything explicitly forbidding it. If users like it, it gets to the front page, maybe just for a couple of hours on a slow Sunday.
So in summary, I don't think anybody should stop posting things because they are "not front page stuff". Does this line or argumentation make sense to you or do you think I am missing something?
However, given that the whole article pretty much fits on a single screen, that can be mostly excused.
I agree, but there's so much more involved in convincing people than just avoiding offense. In fact the author sounds like they're saying to patronize your audience. That's possibly even more offensive than attacking their labels!
nor does he say you should patronise; he says understand the problem well yourself so that you can descrive it well and use it to frame the problem, rather than rely on potentially loaded terms. if anything this is respectful rather than patronising
