I would worry about my methodology if I saw dang, who basically only ever weighs in to politely tell people to be less salty, in the #2 spot on my "Total Salt Score" list.

Again, that list is hugely weighted by frequency of comment. Someone who posts more than almost anyone else will end up vastly higher on the list, even if the majority of comments are not salty. People whose job it is to post on this forum, and particularly to step in where things get negative, is almost sure to manage to rank on the list.

And of course, if you click on him, you can see his "saltiest" responses to people. Some are arguably decently salty, though many are pretty polite too.

My understanding of the word lines up pretty well with the Merriam-Webster definition (https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/salty): feeling or showing resentment towards a person or situation; bitter.

By that standard, just telling someone not to do something wouldn't be salty. Salty is telling someone not to do something because only an idiot would do that.

This seems to me to be detecting how "snarky" a comment is, rather than how salty, as it seems to include snappy, sarcastic, and impertinent comments.

If you have "showdead: off" in your profile you won't see some of those users.

I assumed as much. I've played with what HN looks like with showdead: off from time to time, and relatively happy to trust the moderators and leave it turned on. (I am both glad I have the option to view it though, and glad people who are dead-ed still have the ability to participate. I think HN's system here is quite nice.)

The top guy is someone who's shadowbanned, I see him often.

Also heartwarming to see Terry Davis there, haha.

Yeah, does pg_is_a_butt@ not realize that most people cannot see his posts? You'd think he would figure it out after a while as nobody is replying to him.

He probably knows and is content by having his posts read only by those who've opted in to do so.