Top all-time · #586
David Malki !
Personal blog · wondermark.comculturewritingdesign
David Malki ! writes Wondermark, a personal blog at wondermark.com about culture, writing and design. Since 2009, 104 different Hacker News readers have linked it 140 times, most often “The Historical Perspective of Technology Curmudgeonry”. It is still writing: the last post was on 2026-09-22, and you can follow it by feed.
Rarely recommended · 2 of 40 sampled comments recommend it?
Why HN links it
HN readers mostly link David Malki's Wondermark comics, especially the 'sealioning' strip (1k62), as a shorthand for persistent bad-faith questioning. Some cite other strips on everyday topics.
- Recommended for · 2 comments
- one commenter calls a Garfield article on the site "wonderful"; another says a cartoon "captures the dynamic for me".
Summarised by Claude from a sample of 40 HN comments that link here. Each comment is marked recommending, critical or neutral (citing without judging); how this works.
Most-linked posts?
- /1k62/34 people · 42 mentions · first linked 2014-11-03
- /c/1062/7 people · 7 mentions · first linked 2024-11-27
- /c/2014-09-19-1062sea.png6 people · 6 mentions · first linked 2017-12-04
- /c/1k62/4 people · 4 mentions · first linked 2023-09-12
- The Historical Perspective of Technology Curmudgeonry3 people · 3 mentions · first linked 2011-01-29
- So what do I do with my idea? I mean, it is so great!2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2009-08-09
- /333/2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2012-08-11
- /c1135/2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2019-02-18
- A codified set of the builder's, crafter's, maker's rules2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2011-05-31
- /1k62/2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2020-10-24
What Hacker News says?
Yes, and by then it will only be a decade or two too late. http://wondermark.com/c1177/
Comment linking /c1177/
on “Donald Trump is the president-elect of the U.S.”Submitted On the bonkers color palette of Garfield comics as a story · 329 points
HN discussionI'm pretty sure it's called "Sea-lioning" from this comic strip: http://wondermark.com/1k62/
Comment linking /1k62/
on “Richard M. Stallman resigns”Submitted Spring Forth, My Creation as a story · 76 points
HN discussionRelevant: http://wondermark.com/939/
Comment linking /939/
on “I'm Leaving Mojang”Submitted Socrates vs. the Written Word (2011) as a story · 74 points
HN discussionDon't be a sealion. http://wondermark.com/1k62/
Comment linking /1k62/
on “Who’s behind the “reopen” domain surge?”Submitted The Art of Letter Writing as a story · 8 points
HN discussionYou're not even replying to the right person, dude. He didn't say it. I did. It comes from this: http://wondermark.com/1k62/ Look at what that thing is saying, then look at what you said. * PERFECT MATCH* . You really have no idea how much people hate this, do you?
Comment linking /1k62/
on “Spotify deletes 70 Joe Rogan episodes”Submitted A codified set of the Builder's, Crafter's, Maker's Rules as a story · 8 points
HN discussion> I’ve never heard the walrus analogy before It's not an analogy. It's common internet slang for someone who won't stop arguing even though it's clear that nobody wants to listen to them talk and nobody is taking them seriously. Your reply is pure, unadulterated walrusing. It comes from an episode of Wondermark. http://wondermark.com/1k62/ . > I did do my own googling. Here is what I found Nothing of value, filtered…
Comment linking /1k62/
on “Spotify deletes 70 Joe Rogan episodes”Submitted So what do I do with my idea? I mean, it is so great! as a story · 7 points
HN discussionIt's turtles all the way down - Wondermark: http://wondermark.com/357/ - XKCD: https://xkcd.com/676/
Comment linking /357/
on “I/O Is Faster Than CPU – Let’s Partition Resources and Eliminate OS Abstractions [pdf]”Submitted The Monk vs. the Printing Press as a story · 6 points
HN discussionNo, they send 'envoys' to other social media sites to argue with and harass those who speak up against them anywhere on the Internet. Think "flash mob" crossed with "sealioning^", and look to Gamergate for being first to that particular line. For example, there's a lot of green accounts posting comments here about where to find their new community. ^ Sealioning: https://wondermark.com/1k62/
Comment linking /1k62/
on “Reddit shuts down subreddits including r/The_Donald and r/ChapoTrapHouse”Submitted How to write "Electro-Plasmic Hydrocephalic Genre-Fiction" as a story · 6 points
HN discussionSometime people troll by sealioning: http://wondermark.com/c/2014-09-19-1062sea.png (I'm not accusing the granparent post)
Comment linking /c/2014-09-19-1062sea.png
on “Nim 1.0”Submitted Why is the provenance of the concept more important than the execution as a story · 4 points
HN discussionMy evaluation is that the original usage of the "sealioning" accusation was indeed as a generic dismissive, and its application was dishonest as well; I don't accept the term as a well-founded descriptor of troll behavior in the first place. If you look at the original comic[1], the sea lion follows the couple around in public, into their house, and even into their bedroom, without permission; that is what makes the…
Comment linking /c/2014-09-19-1062sea.png
on “Linus Torvalds on mRNA Vaccines”Submitted The Historical Perspective of Technology Curmudgeonry as a story · 3 points
HN discussionThe term is Sea Lioning , though that typically comes with a repetition of forced burden-of-proofs on the presenter. Based off of this web comic: http://wondermark.com/c/2014-09-19-1062sea.png
Comment linking /c/2014-09-19-1062sea.png
on “Blizzard Employees Staged a Walkout to Protest Banned Pro-Hong Kong Gamer”Submitted The Postmark Experiment as a story · 3 points
HN discussionThe plural of anecdote is data, so FWIW I'm exactly the opposite: not just for textbooks, but even for hardcover literature books I have right there in my bookshelf, I often end up digging up some PDF or Google Books version regardless. I guess I miss the scrolling/zooming, plus all the meta-textual, cross-referencing stuff like having multiple copies of the book in different sections side by side, easy access to re…
Comment linking /socrates-vs-writing/
on “Feynman Lectures on Physics now free online”Submitted I Have a Pepper Tree Problem as a story · 2 points
HN discussionYeah. As a white guy, I get that our current loss of privilege feels like a loss. Change is always uncomfortable, so I can see why people would be inclined to push back. And I get that we all learned to express privilege partly through behaviors that conveniently just happen to maintain privilege (behaviors like those racist jokes). But still, it's frustrating how many people who supposedly pride themselves on their…
Comment linking /1k71/
on “This Is Not a Day Care. It’s a University”Submitted A codified set of the builder's, crafter's, maker's rules as a story · 2 points
HN discussion> How many examples would it take to convince you? Hundreds, at least. It's been a consistent conservative tactic for decades, to the point where it is unremarkable. Unremarkable does not mean acceptable. See also Trump's lies. Trump lies so often that it's not worth noting each instance. > And do you think it's possible for humans to claim they are being altruistic or inclusive, while actually being primarily hatef…
Comment linking /1k62/
on “Resignation Letter”Submitted The Menace of Telephones as a story · 2 points
HN discussionNobody owes anyone else a "reasonable discussion." One person's reasonable discussion is another person's interminable sea lion. http://wondermark.com/1k62/
Comment linking /1k62/
on “E Pur Si Muove”Submitted True Stuff: Monk vs. the Printing Press as a story · 1 points
HN discussion
