Slate Star Codex and Silicon Valley’s War Against the Media • Hacker News Board

Re: Slate Star Codex and Silicon Valley’s War Against the Media

#71

Post by smt88 » Thu, Jul 09, 2020, 5:09 PM UTC

alex_young wrote: post #13

Can you really be both a public figure and keep your identity hidden by way of asking? There’s a playbook for this. Look at Banksy for example. If you don’t want your identity out there it’s your job to protect it. Not the New York Times.

It doesn't seem like Alexander tried that hard to stay pseudonymous anyway. He has published under his full name.

It seems that his major issue was his full name becoming NYT-level famous, which is reasonable. I think that happens to lots of private citizens who get covered by mainstream news, like a IRL "hug of death".

If my premises are correct, then it doesn't seem like NYT's responsibility to keep his name private when he himself didn't do it.

Re: Slate Star Codex and Silicon Valley’s War Against the Media

#72

Post by gkoberger » Thu, Jul 09, 2020, 5:09 PM UTC

whatshisface wrote: post #11

commandlinefan wrote: post #3

Not that the NYT has any business printing somebody's name who doesn't want it to be printed, but I kind of feel like he had been looking for an excuse to shut down the blog for a while - it had been a long time since any of his posts really felt inspired like they were even a year ago. This gives him an excuse to make a clean break.

That theory directly contradicts his claim that he was considering continuing his blog under a different name.

No, it supports it. Why not use the excuse to shut it down, killing “SSC” forever. He’s no longer tied to those posts or opinions. And then he can create a new blog not linked to it at all, and start fresh.

Re: Slate Star Codex and Silicon Valley’s War Against the Media

#73

Post by ppod » Thu, Jul 09, 2020, 5:09 PM UTC

"Personally I feel the Gray Tribe is just as annoying as the Gray Lady"/ "Well the important thing is that you've found a way to feel superior to both".

https://xkcd.com/774/

Re: Slate Star Codex and Silicon Valley’s War Against the Media

#74

Post by MattGaiser » Thu, Jul 09, 2020, 5:10 PM UTC

luckylion wrote: post #65

atdrummond wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It seems the goal lines have been moved to KiwiFarms’ brand of doxxing. As to whose ends that serves, I’ll leave as an exercise to the reader.

Have they? The real name of anyone posting anonymously or under a pseudonym has always been the gold standard of doxxing. It's usually easy to go from full real name to business and private addresses, emails and phone numbers, especially when the person has a web presence, but also for anyone with a few bucks to spare who's happy to pay a data broker.

Yes. Learning the addresses and phone numbers Is interesting mostly to a few people who want to actively harass the person.

Everyone is hunting for the real name of an anonymous person.

Re: Slate Star Codex and Silicon Valley’s War Against the Media

#75

Post by zozbot234 » Thu, Jul 09, 2020, 5:10 PM UTC

nullc wrote: post #60

NicolasGorden wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's disingenuous, he knows the blog posts are compiled into an ebook and says as much.

If you really want to paint SSC in a negative light the optimal tool isn't the posts-- it's the comments. Some of the posts were pretty cringe worthy but the comments were far more reliably cringe worthy.

Plenty of cringe worthy comments on HN, too. I mean, usually they're greyed out but still.

Re: Slate Star Codex and Silicon Valley’s War Against the Media

#76

Post by agentdrtran » Thu, Jul 09, 2020, 5:10 PM UTC

Where is the outrage for doxxing when it happens to people at way more risk than scott alexander?

Re: Slate Star Codex and Silicon Valley’s War Against the Media

#77

Post by theplague42 » Thu, Jul 09, 2020, 5:10 PM UTC

twic wrote: post #61

mrkurt wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My last name is easy to find. My first name is Kurt, I live in Chicago, I work on startups. I've published with my last name within the last decade. Scott Alexander's last name is also easy to find. His first name is Scott, his middle name is Alexander, he's a psychiatrist, and he lives in Michigan. This is all information he publicized. And he has also published under his last name, even on SSC, within the last deca…

Scott Alexander wasn't worried about readers of Slate Star Codex finding out his real name, he was worried about patients who knew his real name finding Slate Star Codex. Using a pseudonym on the blog was a reasonably effective trapdoor function.

Why publish something you wouldn't want your patients to read?

Re: Slate Star Codex and Silicon Valley’s War Against the Media

#78

Post by centimeter » Thu, Jul 09, 2020, 5:12 PM UTC

cinntaile wrote: post #47

dvaun wrote: post #5

If you enjoy reading SSC and want to show some form of support, consider adding your signature to the petition[0]. It's a small thing to do and only takes a little time to complete. [0]: https://www.dontdoxscottalexander.com/

An additional way to protest against their decision is to block nytimes.com on your devices. If you use adguard, nextdns or pihole this is easy to do. If a lot of people do this it will have a big impact, their links get posted a lot here on HN!

My belief is that paywalled sources (NYT included) should not be allowed as HN links. It basically just clutters the front page with stuff I can't actually read.

Re: Slate Star Codex and Silicon Valley’s War Against the Media

#79

Post by memexy » Thu, Jul 09, 2020, 5:12 PM UTC

tripletao wrote: post #28

What an ugly article. A couple quotes: > It remains possible that Alexander vaporized his blog not because he thought it would force Metz’s hand but because he feared that a Times reporter wouldn’t have to poke around for very long to turn up a creditable reason for negative coverage. The reporter is unaware that the Internet Archive exists? The content is obviously still readily available, so the reporter is either…

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Re: Slate Star Codex and Silicon Valley’s War Against the Media

#80

Post by whatshisface » Thu, Jul 09, 2020, 5:12 PM UTC

theplague42 wrote: post #77

twic wrote: post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Scott Alexander wasn't worried about readers of Slate Star Codex finding out his real name, he was worried about patients who knew his real name finding Slate Star Codex. Using a pseudonym on the blog was a reasonably effective trapdoor function.

Why publish something you wouldn't want your patients to read?

Psychiatrists want perfect isolation, so that they can treat everyone from far right nuts to far left nuts to plain unsalted nuts. The only way to do that would be to publish nothing, and surely you must agree that at least some psychiatrists must be cursed with good writing skills and something to say.