Online trolls are harassing a scientist who helped take pictures of a black hole • Hacker News Board

Re: Online trolls are harassing a scientist who helped take pictures of a black hole

#71

Post by bobfromhuddle » Sat, Apr 13, 2019, 6:52 PM UTC

kzcqt wrote: post #26

fzeroracer wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You haven't addressed the fact that when someone chooses a male member of the team and gives them undue credit, people don't get upset. Do you really think Jeffrey Snovey was the sole person behind Powershell? That there was no one else on his team that contributed to his project and helped make it a reality? Where was the outrage in that HN thread? Yet now we have 'the media' pushing a 'feminist narrative' because t…

Nobody gets upset when a male gets undue credit because that's not seen as following a politised agenda. Whether that's right or wrong, or how we could fix that, that's an entirely different matter. People get upset when the media pushes a feminist narrative because feminism is a very divisive issue. Talking about a divisive issue drives clicks, interactions, retweets, etc. Especially when you get dismissive with one…

Your comments here aren't helping. The clear implication is that Dr Bouman is receiving "undue credit" in order to push a "feminist narrative".

If that's your honest reading of events, then you're the problem here, my dude.

Re: Online trolls are harassing a scientist who helped take pictures of a black hole

#72

Post by Broken_Hippo » Sat, Apr 13, 2019, 9:36 PM UTC

amanaplanacanal wrote: post #42

Broken_Hippo wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This isn't "online" culture, it is simply culture. There has always been a horrible group of folks in culture: What we find acceptable changes over time.

This kind of horrible is limited to online culture, though. People don't troll when talking face to face. If they did, everybody would see they were assholes, and they would suddenly find that nobody wanted to hang out with them anymore.

The US constitution declared slaves as 3/5th of a person. Women couldn't do much without a man until recently. We've tortured folks and the Holocaust was a thing. The crusades were a thing.

On a lesser note, people gossip. They'll have "private" conversations about you while they know you can hear. Stop talking to folks because they think you are lesbian.

People are horrible.

Re: Online trolls are harassing a scientist who helped take pictures of a black hole

#73

Post by Nasrudith » Sun, Apr 14, 2019, 5:09 AM UTC

throwawaysea wrote: post #56

Nasrudith wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No because their concerns are transparent misogyny - if they wanted actual coverage they would shame them with a complete list of contributors and snark that "an additional kilobyte or printed page isn't that expensive!". Sadly so many choose to be outraged over irrelevant bullshit instead of something which remotely matters.

Fact-finding is not misogyny. And the facts in this case are that Bouman's algorithm was not used in the black hole image that is being hailed as a scientific milestone. She had other contributions here (see https://twitter.com/thisgreyspirit/status/111651854732747571... which credits her with writing the testing framework), but what was pitched in news headlines about her role/contributions was explicitly false. Poi…

I would welcome fact finders instead. The point is the focus on attacking one woman who wound up being an accidental figurehead instead of - after the creator already told them that he wanted no part in it. If not operating under an ulterior motive (transparent misogyny) they would tear apart the reporting.

If one is concerned about poor accuracy of say a report on 9/11 that claimed Steve Buschemi rescued the most survivors then it makes sense to slam the report as inaccurate tripe. Certainly not start harassing a guy actually involved with the rescue but had a role exaggerated. That is why I refer to it as transparent misogyny - since in what world does it make sense to lash out against the people who are misreported?

It is possible to act as a fact finder. By all means compile a complete list of contributions and itemize it in excruciating detail. Calling it fact-finding is just trying to use it as a rhetorical motte and bailey.