I did not downvote your comment, and I replied because I felt bad for you. You didn't seem (and still don't) to get what was wrong with your comment.
Your comments about css etc are perfectly fine, and interesting, in an of themself - but not in the context of that article. In the context of that article they were off topic.
Your reply indicates that you think that if the topic is interesting at all (your footnotes) then it can be placed anywhere, and that is not so. Comments need to stay on topic to the article they are attached to. It would be one thing if the topic were css and you were brining up a side note. But this article was about dns, css was not on anyone else's mind.
I appreciate your clarification. For what is worth, I personally don’t use downvoting at all (except by accident!): I simply don’t upvote.
Now, please bear in mind that while you just replied
Your comments about css etc are perfectly fine, and interesting, in an of themself - but not in the context of that article. In the context of that article they were off topic.
you previously stated
People comment on the css when it interesting and you can learn from it. Saying someone didn't use css is not interesting at all.
I was obviously replying to the latter.
Let me emphasize a point you’re not addressing. Even though vote counts are gone, relative positioning of comments give you an idea of what HN as a community deems interesting. Clearly my original comment was not considered enlightening, engaging, nor for that matter inappropriate. But, again, plenty of popular comments are decidedly off topic with respect to the article’s content: DNS, webserver used, whois information, ping times, JS usage, accessibility, color choice, cookies, character encoding, HTML semantics, etc.
But that’s the thing: the moment you provide a URL in HN, many aspects that go way beyond the actual content are generally not considered off topic. Whether that is right or wrong, whether this means “not getting it” are, in my opinion, entirely pointless mental exercises. Clearly, as soon as this changes significantly I will heed the cue and adjust, possibly looking for venues where this “off-topic” chatter is deemed acceptable and even fun.
In any event, thanks again for clarifying your point. Cheers.
Your comments about css etc are perfectly fine, and interesting, in an of themself - but not in the context of that article. In the context of that article they were off topic.
Your reply indicates that you think that if the topic is interesting at all (your footnotes) then it can be placed anywhere, and that is not so. Comments need to stay on topic to the article they are attached to. It would be one thing if the topic were css and you were brining up a side note. But this article was about dns, css was not on anyone else's mind.