Please consider imparting information rather than zero content snark.

  Be kind. Don't be snarky. Converse curiously; don't cross-examine. Edit out swipes. 

~ https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html

To be fair the original commenter was incredibly snarky.

I had a similar thought and drew a distinction between snark about lines in the submitted article and snark directed at a fellow HN commenter.

Both are discouraged, neither is great, the second following piling on and getting personal example is arguably worse.

The disappointing part (for myself at least) was a failure to be explicit in how they felt the lay / lie usage should go and in what English speaking domains the preferred usages are.