I don't know why this was downmodded. It's trenchant. Nobody on HN seems to like Groupon, but that doesn't make this kind of ridiculous hearsay more valid.

I'd guess it's due to the sarcastic tone. If he had your made your post instead I think it would be faring better.

What really gets me is the barbershop post actually admits that it's very unlikely for the source to be telling the truth, then goes on to give it credit anyway because it agrees with his own speculation.

"He was saying we shouldn't expect Groupon to be around in 10 years because the company's plan is to collect as much cash as possible, fire everybody, and shut down, keeping the money for the investors."

Because the problem isn't the source (the barber). It's the idea that a groupon executive would have said something like this to his barber, physician, plumber etc.

Maybe bragging to his call girl, maybe to a friend when drunk (and was overheard) but it's ridiculous to think someone would say something like this even in jest.

I don't think selectively quoting to omit "I very much doubt the legitimacy of this story" then commenting "Great source!" is adding anything useful to this conversation.

Disagree. The original post was deeply disingenuous.

And the sarcastic remark adds no value, it merely antagonizes the other poster without really explaining what's a wrong with the post, and sets a more combative tone that is not really seen as desirable here. Tone alone can make the difference between a productive discussion and a non-productive debate and HN seems to do a relatively good job at keeping a tone that leads more toward discussions and less toward debate.

I didn't actually say (or mean to imply) I approved of the original post, just that the follow-up comment was of little value. If the best you can manage is to pull a quote out of context and make a snide remark, why post it?

It's not out of context. That's my point. It's innuendo, and a few words of handwaving don't change that.