I just hope that you don't lie in direct person to person communications in internet. That would be as bad as in real life.
In anonymous comments it's gray area, but when you build some fake identity, then it's plain and basic.
Ask HN: Does anyone else lie on the internet?
41–50 of 110 posts
Re: Ask HN: Does anyone else lie on the internet?
#42Have you ever thought that you might be making the internet a worse place and negatively impacting the people interact with? Do you care?
I agree with this sentiment. Instead of spreading misinformation for sake of "being corrected" or "instigating a discussion", you can just ask for more info and pursue knowledge. You need to understand that some of your BS comments that exist only to fuel the discussion can be repeated by people who actually believe you know what you're talking about, or worse, they can make decisions based on your "informed" comment…
Making life choices based on Internet comments is already a potentially destructive choice.
This person is commenting in forums, not writing papers and news pieces.
Re: Ask HN: Does anyone else lie on the internet?
#43how much reddit karma do you have?
Re: Ask HN: Does anyone else lie on the internet?
#44Some 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.
> 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.
Unless you're commenting knowing that your answer is completely wrong but pretending that you don't.
If you don't know about a topic, instead of lying maybe you could just ask, like a regular person.
Re: Ask HN: Does anyone else lie on the internet?
#45> I live in South Africa in a gated community with 24/7 guard patrols and 12 ft high barbed wire fences. > I've never stepped foot in the continent of Africa Wow, you have a problem. And meanwhile, dang has rate-limited me when I try to only post things I am willing to say in person. Maybe LinkedIn (where everyone knows who everyone is) is the only place for honest discussion. HN clone with "sign up with LinkedIn" ex…
This thread also made South Africa look really bad.
I can tell you that although South Africa has huge problems, it is also one of the most pleasant places to live. And no, we don't all live behind barbed wire fences or in gated communities.
Re: Ask HN: Does anyone else lie on the internet?
#46Have you ever thought that you might be making the internet a worse place and negatively impacting the people interact with? Do you care?
Apart from the shitty first link which happened almost 10 years ago and I still regret/think about - I don't think I am making it a worse place. There's a lot of incorrect and biased narratives all over the internet where user-submitted content is allowed. Does it make it any worse than any other user-submitted content? I don't think so. Do I care? Kind of, that's why I posted this.
> There's a lot of incorrect and biased narratives all over the internet where user-submitted content is allowed. Does it make it any worse than any other user-submitted content? I don't think so.
When did two wrongs start making an alright?
Re: Ask HN: Does anyone else lie on the internet?
#47That story/anecdote you made about South Africa is like 95% accurate, and I say that as someone actually living there (here?). Be careful that people aren't convincing you that your understanding is wrong because it's inconvenient or unpopular. South Africa is a great place overall, but it has it's downsides like some of what you mentioned. But that's no reason to discredit or make it so those downsides don't exist or that they're "not representative" of the country.
Edit. Went back to your comment. You said you don't live in Africa, much less SA. Still, doesn't invalidate the point you made!
Edit 2. I grew up in Africa as a foreigner. It used to be much safer than it is now, unfortunately.
Re: Ask HN: Does anyone else lie on the internet?
#48Of course other people do this - the internet is full of trolls who get a kick out of their dishonesty, flame wars and generally selfish and disruptive behaviour.
Your justification is that you get a lot of engagement, even to the point of re-directing the conversation to suit your own personal interests. This perfectly fits the pattern of just being a self-interested, attention-seeking troll.
Alternatively, have you thought about the parallels to one of the major criticisms of Facebook, namely how their model prioritises engagement over providing value to the consumer?
The bit about how sometimes there is something useful posted in the thread is just trying to make yourself feel better. That information would likely have been posted anyway, and perhaps with better rankings if you hadn’t dedicated yourself to lowering the signal-to-noise ratio.
If you genuinely appreciated the honest and knowledgeable folks online, you wouldn’t continue to set up situations where they end up getting flamed. The point of an apology is not just to pay lip service to damage already done, it is to change your behaviour so that you do not pointlessly make other people’s lives worse in the future.
Re: Ask HN: Does anyone else lie on the internet?
#49I just hope that you don't lie in direct person to person communications in internet. That would be as bad as in real life. In anonymous comments it's gray area, but when you build some fake identity, then it's plain and basic.
And by gray area I mean it's still lying obviously, but it's mostly only harmful to yourself.
Re: Ask HN: Does anyone else lie on the internet?
#50You might need help. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pathological_lying https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gaslighting
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!…
It seems you have a innate perchant for convincing someone to trust you to the point you're willing to say untruths, and knowing you will get away from any form of backlash.
I've also met people similar to this behaviour irl, but they're mostly in army low-commanding positions, often issuing threats and FUD narratives to unwilling conscript soldiers. and they're usually very predatory in a sense.