Live data from Hacker News

Ask HN: Does anyone else lie on the internet?

news.ycombinator.com

21–30 of 110 posts

Re: Ask HN: Does anyone else lie on the internet?

#21
Thanks for coming out, just a reminder that anybody reading about someone else's experience online should do it with a grain of salt.

After being on reddit and 4chan for a long time, I have come to the conclusion that everybody is "Fake and Gay".(expression that is commonly used as a stock comment in response to stories of highly dubious nature or questionable authenticity) on the internet.

Re: Ask HN: Does anyone else lie on the internet?

#22
post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've got pretty healthy relationships IRL - I find it very difficult to lie to anyone I know, work with or have real life dealings with. It's not compulsive, it's a choice. This is just limited to the internet about unimportant topics. I don't think anything I've done has any real impact on people. I'd say it's more of a fucking weird hobby (some obscure role-playing?) than anything else. Appreciate the links though!…

> I regularly lie I take that to include, lying regularly on HN. You act like it's no big deal. How many people regularly lie on here, do you think? Sure, you are asking about it now, I guess that's good. I would guess, vanishingly few, besides maybe the lunatic/troll fringe who get banned. I can't imagine lying on here or any other internet forum, or a real life forum, and it's disturbing to see the way you convince…

Those who readily believe what they are told are easily taken advantage of.

While we are on the topic of epistemic integrity, do you not consider it harmful to make a judgment of psychopathy "from the little I know about you," based on a few UTF-8 characters sent over the web?

Had you any actual knowledge of what it is you speak of, you would have known that:

    The potential for harm is considerable if the PCL-R is used incorrectly, or if the user is not familiar with the clinical and empirical literature pertaining to psychopathy
from the author of the PCL-R [1], "gold standard" for assessing psychopathy (by your own citation [2]).

Why is it that the most morally outraged are the ones most incapable of following their own principles? Doesn't HN rely on people not spreading unreliable misinformation, unlike yourself?

[1] http://www.hare.org/scales/pclr.html

[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psychopathy#Diagnosis

Re: Ask HN: Does anyone else lie on the internet?

#23
post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've got pretty healthy relationships IRL - I find it very difficult to lie to anyone I know, work with or have real life dealings with. It's not compulsive, it's a choice. This is just limited to the internet about unimportant topics. I don't think anything I've done has any real impact on people. I'd say it's more of a fucking weird hobby (some obscure role-playing?) than anything else. Appreciate the links though!…

> I regularly lie I take that to include, lying regularly on HN. You act like it's no big deal. How many people regularly lie on here, do you think? Sure, you are asking about it now, I guess that's good. I would guess, vanishingly few, besides maybe the lunatic/troll fringe who get banned. I can't imagine lying on here or any other internet forum, or a real life forum, and it's disturbing to see the way you convince…

I assume most people are honest. I’m honest a lot of the time. Sometimes I’m not.

Re: Ask HN: Does anyone else lie on the internet?

#24
Some people in comments are saying you are troll for doing this.

I do not understand how this makes you a troll. When you post these comments are you willing to accept defeat when you are wrong? If your answer is yes, you are not a troll.

Commenting on something you have no idea about is not bad per se. In fact, it brings a perspective of an outsider in the discussion.

Re: Ask HN: Does anyone else lie on the internet?

#30
> Over the years I've found writing on HackerNews, Reddit and other online sites has given me an outlet to get creative and engage with folks in a way that will shift discourse towards something I'm more interested in.

Have you tried looking for communities for creative writing? There are places (including reddit) that post/accept writing prompts which spawn some discussion. You can do what you do, write fiction, get some engagement about the topic and be upfront about making it all up.

Post reply on HN