4 ms·

Anybody care to share some context for this article? It doesn't give any background into what wikileaks is and why it is being abandoned. It reads like somebo

Anybody care to share some context for this article? It doesn't give any background into what wikileaks is and why it is being abandoned. It reads like somebody's personal email. I'm sure there's an interesting story behind this, but the article doesn't attempt to provide it.

michael_dorfman 16y ago
What Wikileaks is? How have you managed to avoid hearing about it, and its struggles so long? Here's a place to start: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikileaks http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikileaks
- jasonkester 16y ago
  Funny, I'm actually amazed that so many people keep up on this sort of thing. I wouldn't know where to begin. I've been on the road the last several years, so unless it concerns rock climbing or surfing, or is something that you'd talk about with fellow travelers, it usually doesn't make it onto my radar. Evidently there was some sort of economic downturn recently. Missed that too :). HN is the only exception, since it keeps me up on the tech side of things.
  - michael_dorfman 16y ago
    If that's the case, you may want to try Googling the references you don't catch, before asking the folks here to explain further.
    - jasonkester 16y ago
      Why would it make a difference why I hadn't heard of this company? Googling the site didn't help, nor did visiting the site itself, so I asked here. Seems like a reasonable thing to do. In general, I think that a story on the front page of HN should stand on its own, without the need to go off and do any research to figure out what it's about. This story doesn't even attempt to give any background about its subject matter, so it fails that test.
      - ErrantX 16y ago
        Usually I would agree; however Wikileaks has been massive news and regularly features on here (they are not a Company - it is a Whistleblower site) so it is reasonable to assume the majority of people will know what it is about. Anyone who reads HN regularly in the last 6 months should have read about Wikileaks before. (in the same way you would expect everyone here to understand what Reddit is) I don't know why you got slated for asking though; seems reasonable.
        skorgu 16y ago
        Googling wikileaks here anyway nets the Wikipedia page as the third link: > Wikileaks is an amorphous, international organization, originally based in Sweden,[1] that publishes anonymous submissions and leaks of sensitive documents from governments and other organizations, while preserving the anonymity of their sources. I normally hate the passive-aggressive JFGI response but in this case I can feel the pain. It's pure noise that a simple google search could have avoided.
Kadin 16y ago
Also, Cryptome: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cryptome http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cryptome They've been doing a very Wikileaks-ish thing since 1996, operating (sometimes just) inside the limit of U.S. law and First Amendment protection. The "PGPBoard" referred to is actually a Yahoo Group (http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/pgpboard/ http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/pgpboard/), which seems stupid but is probably more resistant to international censorship than alt.anonymous.messages on Usenet. (Although if it were my butt on the line and I had a choice, I still think that Mixmaster+Usenet would be the better choice.)

michael_dorfman 16y ago

What Wikileaks is? How have you managed to avoid hearing about it, and its struggles so long? Here's a place to start: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikileaks http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikileaks

jasonkester 16y ago
Funny, I'm actually amazed that so many people keep up on this sort of thing. I wouldn't know where to begin. I've been on the road the last several years, so unless it concerns rock climbing or surfing, or is something that you'd talk about with fellow travelers, it usually doesn't make it onto my radar. Evidently there was some sort of economic downturn recently. Missed that too :). HN is the only exception, since it keeps me up on the tech side of things.
- michael_dorfman 16y ago
  If that's the case, you may want to try Googling the references you don't catch, before asking the folks here to explain further.
  - jasonkester 16y ago
    Why would it make a difference why I hadn't heard of this company? Googling the site didn't help, nor did visiting the site itself, so I asked here. Seems like a reasonable thing to do. In general, I think that a story on the front page of HN should stand on its own, without the need to go off and do any research to figure out what it's about. This story doesn't even attempt to give any background about its subject matter, so it fails that test.
    - ErrantX 16y ago
      Usually I would agree; however Wikileaks has been massive news and regularly features on here (they are not a Company - it is a Whistleblower site) so it is reasonable to assume the majority of people will know what it is about. Anyone who reads HN regularly in the last 6 months should have read about Wikileaks before. (in the same way you would expect everyone here to understand what Reddit is) I don't know why you got slated for asking though; seems reasonable.
      - skorgu 16y ago
        Googling wikileaks here anyway nets the Wikipedia page as the third link: > Wikileaks is an amorphous, international organization, originally based in Sweden,[1] that publishes anonymous submissions and leaks of sensitive documents from governments and other organizations, while preserving the anonymity of their sources. I normally hate the passive-aggressive JFGI response but in this case I can feel the pain. It's pure noise that a simple google search could have avoided.

Kadin 16y ago

Also, Cryptome: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cryptome http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cryptome They've been doing a very Wikileaks-ish thing since 1996, operating (sometimes just) inside the limit of U.S. law and First Amendment protection. The "PGPBoard" referred to is actually a Yahoo Group (http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/pgpboard/ http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/pgpboard/), which seems stupid but is probably more resistant to international censorship than alt.anonymous.messages on Usenet. (Although if it were my butt on the line and I had a choice, I still think that Mixmaster+Usenet would be the better choice.)