It's not a jab. It's just different community norms. HN wouldn't be HN if people were allowed to open up 10-level nested comedy threads. If I want to read those - and sometimes I do - I know I can go to Reddit.
If your comment amounts to "This isn't Reddit", then you're part of the problem. There are several ways to show your displeasure without having to resort to posting pointless and wasteful comments.
In truth, I find the posts whining about such things worse then the posts they are in reply to.
There are no "community norms" for reddit, each subreddit has its own norms and things which work in one may get all your comments mod-deleted in an other.
To be specific, jokes are much more welcome in /r/programming than they are here, which invites Eternal September.
I think the pro-business mindset helps as well. People start complaining when the depth that they remember isn't present in the discussions of the internet community (sometimes the gap is only perception/nostalgia).
I am pretty much a poster child for someone who threatens HN culture. While I am deeply interested in the intersection of computers and human enterprise, I came over from Reddit, and I don't have any practical experience to speak of. There are many times here (or in /r/askscience) when someone leaves an opening for a joke and I feel like I just have to make it. I'm sure that originally the impulse was tied to the possibility that a lot of people would like it, but now it's merely a conditioned response.
At any rate, my tendency to temporarily believe that my youngish impulsiveness would be a positive thing for the community make me an outsider here, but I don't want to change that.
I know that that having a clearly defined purpose helps a community to be strong and it isn't worth making HN (or /r/askscience) more like me if it jeopardizes their existence.
What's more, once in a great while, when it really is time to make a joke I've watched them go by unmolested.
Edit: I'm sorry about the double post. I was having trouble typing on my phone.
Edit2: In response to your comment below, I'd say that people who are pro-business are probably less introverted than I am. Given that assumption, I'd say they'd be less motivated to make those kneejerk comments because they're probably getting enough social validation elsewhere. Granted, those are assumptions layered on assumptions, but at least that was what I meant
By "jab" do you mean derogatory remark? Does that not depend on the poster's perception of Reddit? If one considers them equal but different, then the remark is merely one of contrast.
> each subreddit has its own norms
Granted...
> There are no "community norms" for reddit
From what I've observed, there most definitely are. Their forms of humor are often upvoted across subreddits (e.g., inside jokes, meme's, animated gif's in lieu of discourse).
This is how I interpret the reddit "jab" comparison: go there for funny, come here for info; neither is better than the other.
If you personally feel HN is superior to reddit, than I can see why you'd consider it a jab.
