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Tell HN: Aaron Swartz's website is offline

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Re: Tell HN: Aaron Swartz's website is offline

#201

Post by qwerty456127 »

vivekseth wrote: post #196
qwerty456127 wrote: post #193

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Cool. Nevertheless I feel like this should be upgraded to the 100%-offline-readable level (i.e. at least qblog.aaronsw.com should be mirrored too, so should be Twitter and Pinboard accounts preferably), converted to the epub format and distributed among commercial (for free or for charity), free and pirate ebook libraries. I'm actually surprised nobody has done this yet.

Why don’t you do it?

I've already put this to my to-do list so I probably will if somebody won't do this faster.

Re: Tell HN: Aaron Swartz's website is offline

#202

Post by erikpukinskis »

claudiawerner wrote: post #189
erikpukinskis wrote: post #132

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Hate speech is subjective though. For example saying “men aren’t women” is hate speech and will get you banned from Twitter. https://www.google.com/amp/s/thehill.com/hilltv/rising/42003...

Many harms are very subjective, the application of the law depends on many subjective factors, for instance, as does almost any account of justice. To say something is subjective (and imply therefore be discarded, or it is invalid) is rubbish thinking. Just as with many other phrases, "men aren't women" isn't simply a clear expression of fact, it has an ideological message or meaning behind it, just as 4chan's famous…

I don’t think the rules are silly. I think they’re subjective.

For what it’s worth, I think interventions to make Twitter feel safer for trans people are important. I’m sorry I said something that made you feel otherwise.

I would prefer to do it in a way that women’s rights advocates can still do their work, but that’s probably impossible in the current climate.

Safe spaces require a formal hierarchy of identities so you can resolve these issues. Either trans rights come first or uterus havers’s rights do.

My preference would be that Twitter allows you to choose your mode of governance, so you can browse on “safe for trans people” mode or “safe for women” or “safe for conservatives” or whatever mode you prefer. We probably need multiple versions of each since there’s variation even within these categories.

I don’t think there’s any way to do this within liberalism. It has to be an anarchist solution. It’s a mistake to think there’s a good universal answer.

Re: Tell HN: Aaron Swartz's website is offline

#203

Post by corbold »

qwerty456127 wrote: post #193
joshuakelly wrote: post #89

Knowing that this would happen eventually, I created an archival copy on GitHub soon after his death: https://github.com/jdjkelly/www.aaronsw.com I can hardly believe this was six years ago.

Cool. Nevertheless I feel like this should be upgraded to the 100%-offline-readable level (i.e. at least qblog.aaronsw.com should be mirrored too, so should be Twitter and Pinboard accounts preferably), converted to the epub format and distributed among commercial (for free or for charity), free and pirate ebook libraries. I'm actually surprised nobody has done this yet.

I made an epub out of his blog 2 years ago.

It is not sorted or edited in any way though.

https://github.com/C0rby/aaronsw-weblogToEpub

Re: Tell HN: Aaron Swartz's website is offline

#204

Post by smokeyj »

josefresco wrote: post #77
soneca wrote: post #20

His post "I hate the news" (0) was(is) very influential for me personally. It was seminal in what become a rather significant change in my habits and view of the world. I am now very conscious that news are entertainment, purely and simply. With the goods and bads of any other entertainment form. From time to time, while explaining my position to others (often seen as kind of radical), I refer this post. I hope it co…

While I like and respect who Aaron was and what he did for us all, I cringed when reading "I Hate the News" because it came across as very naive. It's the same logic young people use to justify not voting, also the same logic my fellow parents use as reason for not attending town meeting. Find new sources, find your news. While today's news doesn't effect you directly, it might tomorrow, or it might effect your frien…

Maybe Aaron doesn't get it. Maybe you don't get it.

The question boils down to this. If information doesn't promote action, what good was the information?

> It's the same logic young people use to justify not voting

And why should they? Has the outcome of an election ever come down to one vote?

The pattern is simple. The news let's us focus on what we can't control so we can ignore what we can control.

How many fat voters want free health care? How many of them sit down to watch the news instead of exercising?

How many voters want more money but won't invest time learning a skill?

How many voters want better education but won't log on to (MOOC-du-jour)

How many voters want world peace but won't change their consumption habits?

How many voters want cleaner energy but won't buy an electric car?

I'm with Aaron on this one. Keeping up with the news doesn't make you more "woke". It means you've wasted time that could have been invested in direct action of the outcome you want.

Re: Tell HN: Aaron Swartz's website is offline

#205

Post by teolandon »

cabaalis wrote: post #188
erikpukinskis wrote: post #132

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Hate speech is subjective though. For example saying “men aren’t women” is hate speech and will get you banned from Twitter. https://www.google.com/amp/s/thehill.com/hilltv/rising/42003...

I've never understood the need to "ban" on twitter. The entire system is set up so that you see speech from people that you want to see. Put up a disclaimer "This account is known to promote speech that is antithetical to the values of Twitter, and the values espoused here solely belong to the individual(s) posting these messages." Put a checkbox for the user if they want to see these results in search or not. Let pe…

The fact that those tweets exist and are given a platform on which they can spread the influence is what's harmful.

The words themselves can be hurtful, of course, but they're not as harmful as the power they have when they are tweeted out for the whole world to see. They are given value by being allowed on twitter. They are viewed as valid opinions that new people can adopt and spread. This is why I think twitter is doing the right thing by actually banning such accounts, and why simply giving an easier way to blanket "block" those accounts from your personal view might not be enough.

Re: Tell HN: Aaron Swartz's website is offline

#206

Post by InitialLastName »

jondubois wrote: post #187
pookeh wrote: post #181

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> If you're a regular person, it takes a lot of time and energy and you get nothing out of it. One vote never made a difference. Except when you start preaching that idea, then you are part of the masses that think that way, and hence the minority of people who do vote, and who do not represent the majority opinion, are the ones that influence the outcome.

I'd rather be part of the masses who think rationally. If it were up to me, the system would look very different but it's not. I have 0 influence. The best I can do for myself is leave the country if it gets bad. If everyone thought like me, then society would churn through governments like toilet paper and life would be better for people like me who only stand to benefit from change.

If you don't think it can change for the worse, I'd like to point you towards some properly failed states.

Re: Tell HN: Aaron Swartz's website is offline

#207

Post by reaperducer »

davidivadavid wrote: post #191
reaperducer wrote: post #182

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Could you give an example of something you learned or read in the news that had a practical effect on your life? Today the news told me that a particular road I use to get to work is closed. Yesterday the news told me that a charity I usually contribute to, but forgot to this year, is falling short of its annual fundraising goal. Last week the news told me that a product I use has been recalled for safety reasons. Th…

I'm pretty sure none of those particular "news" would have been of any relevance to me, for example. I'm also pretty sure that when people talk about "news" they mean TV news bulletins or large press outlets — which wouldn't cover those things either. However, a newsletter or a status update on social media seem like they would cover that type of information. But they're not "news" in the common usage made of that wo…

Moving the goalposts doesn't help your argument. Local news is very much "news." Like politics, all news is local. It may not be local to you, but you're not the only person in the world.

The reason it's called "journalism" is because newspapers started as daily journals of what ships were coming into port, and what cargo was expected.

Boring, mundane, everyday, very local news.

Re: Tell HN: Aaron Swartz's website is offline

#209

Post by jrumbut »

smokeyj wrote: post #204
josefresco wrote: post #77

Earlier quoted context omitted.

While I like and respect who Aaron was and what he did for us all, I cringed when reading "I Hate the News" because it came across as very naive. It's the same logic young people use to justify not voting, also the same logic my fellow parents use as reason for not attending town meeting. Find new sources, find your news. While today's news doesn't effect you directly, it might tomorrow, or it might effect your frien…

Maybe Aaron doesn't get it. Maybe you don't get it. The question boils down to this. If information doesn't promote action, what good was the information? > It's the same logic young people use to justify not voting And why should they? Has the outcome of an election ever come down to one vote? The pattern is simple. The news let's us focus on what we can't control so we can ignore what we can control. How many fat v…

The majority party of the Virginia House of Delegates was decided not by one vote but by a coin flip because the vote was tied.

This happened last year. It was all over the news: https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/virginia-politics/court...

Re: Tell HN: Aaron Swartz's website is offline

#210

Post by dang »

jasonmp85 wrote: post #29
iseeyoubydesign wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[dead]

Hey thanks for starting my week off with a laugh. "Right wing thinkers". Heh. Clever!

This comment also breaks the site guidelines and only makes the thread worse.

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