261–270 of 530 posts
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Karma is pretty much directly related to how much time you spend on HN, and not much else.
You could easily follow every single story without ever commenting on any of them.. Not to mention the amount of unregistered users
So this is on the OP, which quotes the Lessig post: > For in the 18 months of negotiations, that was what he was not willing to accept, and so that was the reason he was facing a million dollar trial in April — his wealth bled dry, yet unable to appeal openly to us for the financial help he needed to fund his defense, at least without risking the ire of a district court judge. I never understood this assertion. Under…
Presumably the problem wasn't in asking for funds, the problem was in explaining why the funds were necessary. I read a recent story, probably linked here on HN, about how standard procedure for the Justice dept. is to freeze all your funds so you can't afford adequate representation, then dump so much paperwork on you that you have no chance to defend yourself. All of this would have been facts related to the case w…
Earlier quoted context omitted.
A story and the reality are always different. The story as presented to people at the time was Aaron had done something (legally) wrong and was in trouble for doing it, some people believed what he did was for a just cause (education material should be free) and others didn't. If the people reading the story at the time were expected to act on the situation by donating, why is it wrong for them to act in the form of…
First, just to be really clear about this: Ed is pretty much the very last example of bad behavior that I would ever look to on HN. He's a heck of a nice guy, and I wish he wasn't the one being discussed here. That said, surely you can acknowledge that there's a difference between donating and posting a comment?
The point is every single person that acted on that post was doing it under exactly the same idea, "I have read about this situation and based on what I have read I believe x to be (true / false) and therefore I (support / don't support) Aaron" so when someone said "I believe that Aaron does not deserve to be bearing the burden here, I am donating $10 to his fund" they were making exactly the same assumptions as edw519 made when he said "I believe that Aaron is responsible for this situation and therefore should be responsible for the consequences".
The only difference is edw519 is on the wrong side of the outcome. Those that donated didn't know that Aaron was in some serious shit way beyond what anyone imagined, just like edw519 didn't know that Aaron was in some serious shit way beyond what he imagined.
If everyone took the line you're talking about, "I don't know the full story (because nobody ever can) so I'm not going to pass any judgement" Aaron would not have been the recipient of any donations, because Aaron could have been more in the wrong than edw519 thought! Maybe the prosecution had evidence that showed Aaron intended to rip people off, or commit a terrible crime? I don't want to be behind supporting that! I had better just ignore everything.
So this is on the OP, which quotes the Lessig post: > For in the 18 months of negotiations, that was what he was not willing to accept, and so that was the reason he was facing a million dollar trial in April — his wealth bled dry, yet unable to appeal openly to us for the financial help he needed to fund his defense, at least without risking the ire of a district court judge. I never understood this assertion. Under…
Presumably the problem wasn't in asking for funds, the problem was in explaining why the funds were necessary. I read a recent story, probably linked here on HN, about how standard procedure for the Justice dept. is to freeze all your funds so you can't afford adequate representation, then dump so much paperwork on you that you have no chance to defend yourself. All of this would have been facts related to the case w…
Earlier quoted context omitted.
A story and the reality are always different. The story as presented to people at the time was Aaron had done something (legally) wrong and was in trouble for doing it, some people believed what he did was for a just cause (education material should be free) and others didn't. If the people reading the story at the time were expected to act on the situation by donating, why is it wrong for them to act in the form of…
First, just to be really clear about this: Ed is pretty much the very last example of bad behavior that I would ever look to on HN. He's a heck of a nice guy, and I wish he wasn't the one being discussed here. That said, surely you can acknowledge that there's a difference between donating and posting a comment?
Earlier quoted context omitted.
I'm not entirely certain that Aaron knew he was doing something wrong, or, for that matter, whether he was in fact doing something wrong. It seems he made little effort to cover his tracks and pretty much acted out in the open. And from what I've heard from friends who've met him in person - Aaron was brilliant, idealistic, a nice guy, and hopelessly naive about how the world actually works.
If he didn't think he was doing anything wrong, why didn't he just ask permission?
See the PACER incident for how that can play out when it works. And I guess the JSTOR one for when it doesn't.
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> He gave his honest appraisal of what was happening in a current events story on a message board, based on the facts available to us at the time, which included none of the outrageous details that have come to light in the last few days. So, so true. I mean, it's not like people could have simply, y'know, avoided speculating publicly on another person's case when they didn't have all the facts. No, don't go trying t…
The hypocrisy of the TC article is disgusting. They're recklessly throwing stones at people who may be in delicate positions themselves.
As far as I can tell the TC article was designed to elicit an emotional reaction without any consideration given to human cost.
TC needs to do the naval gazing here.
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I've been incredibly vocal about my stance on depression here on HN in the past, specifically that saying things like "man up" is absurd. Depression, like every other disease on the planet, is not something you "man up" through. It's a disease that happens to manifest itself in the same places that personality does. To a casual, uninformed observer, depression is a choice of behavior. It isn't. You don't get depressi…
And this is exactly why this article from TC needs to be banned from HN. The article suggests Aaron asked for help because he was depressed. This is simply NOT true. First, it was submitted by sethbannon[1] and second, nowhere on the website do I see anything directly from Aaron asking for help[2]. The fund is overseen by Bettina Neuefeind and funds go directly to pay legal costs.
I need to leave HN soon if this is the type of shit that continues to get over 400 points and sticks on the top of the frontpage for hours.
blhack - I'm not blaming you for any of this, hopefully your not taking this as an attack against your specific comment.
Context is everything.
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"Aaron should man up, take responsibility for his actions, and pay his own bills." ~Ed Sounds like Ed was a bit harsh on someone who was going through allot of trouble. The comment was excessively cruel. Not to mention it was the top comment, which must of added large dosage of salt on an already wounded soul. So he(Ed) rightfully deserves any criticism thrown at him. It's such a tool bag comment, Ed should apologize…
You're just as capable of hurting people. Maybe you just pushed someone over the edge by calling them scum. Tomorrow, will I get to call you names and talk about how your comment was excessively cruel and vitriolic? Do you know if the person you just blamed and insulted is stable and can handle it?
Geez, I didn't know I just as capable of hurting people. I learned some new on HN. Of course even the dumbest person in the world know this.
What matters is that those comments were hurting someone who was only looking for help. There is a big difference between someone who responds to comments and someone who attacking someone's call for help.
"Do you know if the person you just blamed and insulted is stable and can handle it?"
If you know someone is asking for help, why would you berate them. Please get a clue and increase your social IQ.