Live data from Hacker News

I Am Deleting the Blog

slatestarcodex.com

71–80 of 1001 posts

Re: I Am Deleting the Blog

#71

Edit: this comment was not constructive.

This behaviour is very much not going to help. One of the many reasons doxxing is bad is because "speculation" is so often wrong. Anyway, it rather diminishes the force of an argument that the NYT is in the wrong if a mob publishes someone's name in a spasm of outrage over the fact that the NYT wanted to publish someone's name.

Re: I Am Deleting the Blog

#72
post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A lot of political extremists hate people like Scott, and it has caused him a lot of trouble in the past. This is why anonymity is more important now than ever, because just writing a scientific blog about interesting topics can make you the target of witch hunts designed to ruin your life and kill you. It's hard to describe how bad these things can get out of nowhere without having been through some of it or seeing…

Is there an author in the United States who has been killed in 2020? EDIT: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Murdered_American_wri... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Assassinated_American...

I don't think it's about being murdered. There are very real, non-lethal consequences to writing certain uncomfortable opinions. Just having one's name attached to controversial articles, tweets and posts would be enough for some employers to think "nope, not worth the effort / PR hit" and not hire that person.

E.g. I have written a bunch of outlandish stuff in my comment history, and some of it would cause people a lot of offense. Enough for them to want to call my employer out of some motivation and escalate to some sort of public/twitter witch hunt. But I promise you, I am not a bad person, and would not hurt a fly. That is the part that's missing here. Reasonable, innocent people are potentially being treated as if they're inciting violence.

Re: I Am Deleting the Blog

#73
I thought he was smarter than this. Of course talking to the press would put him in the spotlight and the press doesn't like pseudonyms (it might be accused of making it all up). Just suppress the narcissistic instincts and don't talk to the press if you like your privacy. As for the NYT's actions... It's as good as many other occasions to rethink one's attitude towards that paper.

Re: I Am Deleting the Blog

#75
I stopped trusting reporters about 35 years ago, when I personally witnessed an occurrence, where a reporter was at the scene, and later read what he had written about it in the newspaper.

It had practically nothing to do with what really happened, but was written in a way that most of their readers would most likely expect and endorse.

I was still very young then, but it opened my eyes, and from then on, I mostly stopped reading newspapers, and don't trust anything they write, without checking the facts.

Re: I Am Deleting the Blog

#76
post #5

> He told me it would be a mostly positive piece about how we were an interesting gathering place for people in tech, and how we were ahead of the curve on some aspects of the coronavirus situation. It probably would have been a very nice article. Unfortunately, he told me he had discovered my real name and would reveal it in the article, ie doxx me. ... When I expressed these fears to the reporter, he just said that…

He could also name the NYT reporter.

There is no need to do that. As long as the reporter remains unnamed, for now, they can decide to either not publish the article, or not publish the name, and they will be able to go along with there life, without getting the negative backlash.

If they do dox the person, though, their name will be on the article, and you'll be able to find it.

Re: I Am Deleting the Blog

#77
A few relevant articles about how the New York Times claims to treat sources:

[0]: "The Times sometimes agrees not to identify people who provide information for our articles...Sources often fear for their jobs or business relationships — sometimes even for their safety."

[1] "If compassion or the unavoidable conditions of reporting require shielding an identity, the preferred solution is to omit the name and explain the omission. (That situation might arise, for example, in an interview conducted inside a hospital or a school governed by privacy rules.) "

[0] https://www.nytimes.com/2018/06/14/reader-center/how-the-tim...

[1] https://www.nytimes.com/editorial-standards/guidelines-on-in...

Re: I Am Deleting the Blog

#78
post #67
post #5

> He told me it would be a mostly positive piece about how we were an interesting gathering place for people in tech, and how we were ahead of the curve on some aspects of the coronavirus situation. It probably would have been a very nice article. Unfortunately, he told me he had discovered my real name and would reveal it in the article, ie doxx me. ... When I expressed these fears to the reporter, he just said that…

FYI: probably shouldn’t look up Naomi Wu during work hours lolll

Or with your tween kid sitting next to you.

Re: I Am Deleting the Blog

#79

This is a tragedy, Scott Alexander is such a thoughtful writer. I wish journalists would come up with some professional standards and make the title licensed, like doctor or lawyer. Right now we all recognize how important journalism is but journalists themselves run the gamut from ethical investigative journalists to clickbait manufacturers. Imagine if journalists also had to adhere to the equivalent of attorney cli…

Licensing seems like a solution to problems like this but the cure would be worse than the disease. Control over the licensing body would guarantee control over information, so it would become a prize to be fought for and the whole thing would be politicized. The best case scenario is we end up with the same mess we have now. Worst case is one side captures control and now their side gets to be the only "legitimate" one.

Same problem with so-called fact-checking. It's politicized, which means it adds nothing over the chaotic political debate we already have, except a false veneer of objectivity.

Re: I Am Deleting the Blog

#80

This is a tragedy, Scott Alexander is such a thoughtful writer. I wish journalists would come up with some professional standards and make the title licensed, like doctor or lawyer. Right now we all recognize how important journalism is but journalists themselves run the gamut from ethical investigative journalists to clickbait manufacturers. Imagine if journalists also had to adhere to the equivalent of attorney cli…

> make the title licensed

This is possibly one of the easiest ways to create a police state if you make journalism "regulated" (i.e. government approved) ((or if you're a nutter, corporation approved))

Post reply on HN