Hello, just wanted to let you know you should probably use a different word instead of "niggling", just to be safe in case some day in the future someone may find your post and try to cast you as a racist. Or worst, it may be detected by an algorithm and your post could be demerited based on that parameter and you would not know why. While niggling is a legitimate word and has no racist origin, people may construe it as insensitive because it might trigger someone due to the similarity to a certain word. Also, actual racists sometimes use a variation of niggling to refer to black children. Sorry that it has to be this way.
While I appreciate you taking the time to write this note, I don't think I will edit the word.
The fact that it sometimes is being used by racists gives me a little pause (that's basically how semantic shift happens, and there comes a point where the new meaning eclipses the old), but I have never come across it in that context, whereas I see it used in it's original meaning commonly (and in professional contexts).
If someone tries to cast a comment of mine in a technical thread as racist I don't think changing my language is going to help.
Similarly I'm not so invested in my imaginary internet points that being flagged by such a poor future algorithm concerns me. If HN got to that point, I would probably have lost interest in it long before.
I'm here for interesting, technical discussion. Not for the zeitgeist's culture wars that are engulfing all the other platforms. With the exception of recent threads (which considering the tumultuous events that are happening, I understand), I find HN to be a lovely corner of the old web where users try to read each other's content in good faith.
