I don't see how you can know why you were downvoted. Even if one person says something, they won't all. Your comment right here has some rough patches, but I can tell what you're saying. Humans are terrific at extracting signal from noise. I would say be who you are, tough as it may be, and it'll encourage the rest of the world in the future to do the same. We're all unique in some way or another and have flaws and we'd be better off if we were knew others had them too because they weren't constantly trying to hide it and we wouldn't feel so bad thinking we're the only ones. I hope it doesn't sound unsympathetic. I understand where you're coming from intellectually, but don't have any real experience being ridiculed or bullied. I know kids can be brutal and probably scarred you, and unfortunately, adults aren't much better, but we should be, and I think at least Hacker News is better than most places full of human adults. We know there's a huge world out there. I think I'm reasonable well-spoken in English but can't speak a lick of any other language at all. The fact that you can produce intelligible English already puts you above me in my book. You're a person. I can respect you, esteem you, potentially love you, not in spite of your flaws, but because they don't matter. Every single person on the planet has them, and if they're not moral flaws, nobody should give a shit. I can't respect or love a machine any more than I can a rock. And I don't want to talk to one, either.