6 ms·

Confirmed: HOPA Dry Erase Girl Is A Hoax, Identity Revealed

Herring 16y ago
The tech echo chamber is getting worse. If people don't trust their sources, that leads to increasingly polarized opinions.
kilian 16y ago
It was funny, but obviously fake. No one except a sysadmin with access logs* could find out someone played Farmville 19.7 hours a week. It's just that I couldn't bring myself to point that out to people. Now, all we need to find out is how they got so much traction to begin with, and apply that to our startups/webapps :) * or someone with a Wakoopa account ;)
- brazzy 16y ago
  IIRC the photo messages explicitly mentioned "Spencer" installing software to monitor people's internet usage, and giving "the codes" to "Jenny".
  - kilian 16y ago
    Whoops, looks like you're right! Then something else must've triggered me into thinking it was fake and I retroactively rationalized it to that.
  - gaius 16y ago
    Oh right! I read that as "the cocks" and wondered WTF she was on about.
- theBobMcCormick 16y ago
  Actually, a lot of web filtering apps (WebSense, etc) have fairly simple web GUI's that are intended specifically for management and HR types to pull up reports about their employees web browsing habits.
randomwalker 16y ago
Normally I wouldn't vote up this kind of trash, but I see something interesting here. "Mainstream culture" collapsed about a decade ago -- did you know that Seinfeld was the last TV show watched regularly by 50% or more of the American population? As the article notes, memes are increasingly where we get our culture. And hoaxes are an integral part of the meme landscape. Anyone who can find a way to modify the Internet (not the Internet itself, of course, but people's use of the Internet) to better resist the spread of hoaxes could significantly change society. Think not just hoaxes, but outrages like #amazonfail. What a huge social cost (on attention, reputation etc) these things impose. http://www.shirky.com/weblog/2009/04/the-failure-of-amazonfail/ http://www.shirky.com/weblog/2009/04/the-failure-of-amazonfa... Now that might not seem like a great startup idea -- users are just having fun spreading links around (or getting outraged), and if you can't even monetize content then how can you monetize crowdsourcing the truth? But then I noticed that Fox News and other media outlets fell for this hoax. Surely there's a significant monetary cost to that, which provides an opportunity for a business model? The old Snopes way of doing things isn't working so well any more -- these things spread in minutes, so the fact checking mechanism needs to use channels similar to the ones that the hoaxes themselves do. One possible idea is a prediction market (that pays out real money). If it is successful, it might become a standard part of media fact checking policy to check the prices there. A news organization probably be willing to actually wager a few thousand dollars -- a fraction of what the story is worth to them. Coming back to this example, that would give a tremendous incentive to one of the many people involved in creating this hoax to make a decent pile of money through the prediction site (anonymously, in fact). In effect, it would be a way for anonymous tipsters to leak out the word (in addition to aggregating third-party analysis and intelligence), except it would be far more streamlined and effective because it's a market. Anyway, just a thought.
- d4nt 16y ago
  I like the idea, although I don't think it will stop this kind of thing spreading. I think most people suspected it was a fake, but still spread the story because it was a funny story. Its a bit like a modern version of "Two guys walk into a bar..." jokes. Everyone knows two guys didn't really walk into a bar. Even if a meme is obviously not true, many Media outlets would still be prepared to report it as a "looks what's causing a stir on the internet" story. Although, having a slight possibility of it being true does give them some "journalistic cover".
AlanGreen 16y ago
Poll: Who will gain most benefit of this ? - The company Chive - The girl Elyse Porterman (sex sells)
simonsarris 16y ago
So the ironic bit is that she was hired (to do the shoot) because she was a HPOA.
- Tichy 16y ago
  I wonder how viral the thing would have become if instead of calling her a HPOA, the offending snippet would have been calling her a fat cow or something like that (with a fat model obviously).
- mynameishere 16y ago
  If by ironic you mean the opposite of ironic.
bbuffone 16y ago
I assume everything on the web is a hoax. especially the things that have as little meaning as this
- noodle 16y ago
  i assume everything on "the chive", a pretty clear ripoff of "the onion", is likely going to be fake.
mfr 16y ago
Of course, I wanted to believe it was true. Unappreciated worker with morally-lite boss in a despised industry. What's not to like? The lighting was too good though. Specifically, it looked like there was a tripod, a well-calibrated fill-flash and an additional, off-center light source. Clearly, not impossible for a person and a timer to do, but it began to hit the limits of plausibility.
- CWuestefeld 16y ago
  I called this as a hoax from the beginning, but for different reasons (yours are good, too). She calls out the boss for playing Farmville all day. Yet Farmville is a Facebook app, running inside FB. So all she would know is that he spends all day in FB, not specifically what he's doing there.
  - BerislavLopac 16y ago
    My clue was that she didn't show any percentage of his time being spent watching porn. It's inconceivable to me that an obviously straight, sexist man (HOPA remark) would spend all that time playing Farmville and none watching porn.
- Gormo 16y ago
  People who deliberately take photos for public display often use tripods and good lighting, irrespective of whether the story told by their photographs is real or fictional.
mdg 16y ago
Is that jQuery John ?
- willwagner 16y ago
  I think the article has the name wrong. In the article text, they spell the last name "Resig" but if you look at one of the screenshots, the actual name is "Rezig".
keithwarren 16y ago
Dye her hair red and she can play Anna Chapman in the Russian spy movie.
adamilardi 16y ago
This is a sad day. If you can't trust the internet who can you trust.
- mindcrime 16y ago
  The government?
  - adamilardi 16y ago
    I just thought it would be hilarious if politicians started doing ASK HN: before they voted on a bill.. it would go like this... "I need to vote on this saving the children bill but I'm not sure it's the right thing and I'm also having trouble syncing my contacts from my ipad to my ipod please help" , joe politician
deleted 16y ago
[deleted]

The tech echo chamber is getting worse. If people don't trust their sources, that leads to increasingly polarized opinions.

kilian 16y ago

It was funny, but obviously fake. No one except a sysadmin with access logs* could find out someone played Farmville 19.7 hours a week. It's just that I couldn't bring myself to point that out to people. Now, all we need to find out is how they got so much traction to begin with, and apply that to our startups/webapps :) * or someone with a Wakoopa account ;)

brazzy 16y ago
IIRC the photo messages explicitly mentioned "Spencer" installing software to monitor people's internet usage, and giving "the codes" to "Jenny".
- kilian 16y ago
  Whoops, looks like you're right! Then something else must've triggered me into thinking it was fake and I retroactively rationalized it to that.
- gaius 16y ago
  Oh right! I read that as "the cocks" and wondered WTF she was on about.
theBobMcCormick 16y ago
Actually, a lot of web filtering apps (WebSense, etc) have fairly simple web GUI's that are intended specifically for management and HR types to pull up reports about their employees web browsing habits.

randomwalker 16y ago

Normally I wouldn't vote up this kind of trash, but I see something interesting here. "Mainstream culture" collapsed about a decade ago -- did you know that Seinfeld was the last TV show watched regularly by 50% or more of the American population? As the article notes, memes are increasingly where we get our culture. And hoaxes are an integral part of the meme landscape. Anyone who can find a way to modify the Internet (not the Internet itself, of course, but people's use of the Internet) to better resist the spread of hoaxes could significantly change society. Think not just hoaxes, but outrages like #amazonfail. What a huge social cost (on attention, reputation etc) these things impose. http://www.shirky.com/weblog/2009/04/the-failure-of-amazonfail/ http://www.shirky.com/weblog/2009/04/the-failure-of-amazonfa... Now that might not seem like a great startup idea -- users are just having fun spreading links around (or getting outraged), and if you can't even monetize content then how can you monetize crowdsourcing the truth? But then I noticed that Fox News and other media outlets fell for this hoax. Surely there's a significant monetary cost to that, which provides an opportunity for a business model? The old Snopes way of doing things isn't working so well any more -- these things spread in minutes, so the fact checking mechanism needs to use channels similar to the ones that the hoaxes themselves do. One possible idea is a prediction market (that pays out real money). If it is successful, it might become a standard part of media fact checking policy to check the prices there. A news organization probably be willing to actually wager a few thousand dollars -- a fraction of what the story is worth to them. Coming back to this example, that would give a tremendous incentive to one of the many people involved in creating this hoax to make a decent pile of money through the prediction site (anonymously, in fact). In effect, it would be a way for anonymous tipsters to leak out the word (in addition to aggregating third-party analysis and intelligence), except it would be far more streamlined and effective because it's a market. Anyway, just a thought.

d4nt 16y ago
I like the idea, although I don't think it will stop this kind of thing spreading. I think most people suspected it was a fake, but still spread the story because it was a funny story. Its a bit like a modern version of "Two guys walk into a bar..." jokes. Everyone knows two guys didn't really walk into a bar. Even if a meme is obviously not true, many Media outlets would still be prepared to report it as a "looks what's causing a stir on the internet" story. Although, having a slight possibility of it being true does give them some "journalistic cover".

AlanGreen 16y ago

Poll: Who will gain most benefit of this ? - The company Chive - The girl Elyse Porterman (sex sells)

simonsarris 16y ago

So the ironic bit is that she was hired (to do the shoot) because she was a HPOA.

Tichy 16y ago
I wonder how viral the thing would have become if instead of calling her a HPOA, the offending snippet would have been calling her a fat cow or something like that (with a fat model obviously).
mynameishere 16y ago
If by ironic you mean the opposite of ironic.

bbuffone 16y ago

I assume everything on the web is a hoax. especially the things that have as little meaning as this

noodle 16y ago
i assume everything on "the chive", a pretty clear ripoff of "the onion", is likely going to be fake.

mfr 16y ago

Of course, I wanted to believe it was true. Unappreciated worker with morally-lite boss in a despised industry. What's not to like? The lighting was too good though. Specifically, it looked like there was a tripod, a well-calibrated fill-flash and an additional, off-center light source. Clearly, not impossible for a person and a timer to do, but it began to hit the limits of plausibility.

CWuestefeld 16y ago
I called this as a hoax from the beginning, but for different reasons (yours are good, too). She calls out the boss for playing Farmville all day. Yet Farmville is a Facebook app, running inside FB. So all she would know is that he spends all day in FB, not specifically what he's doing there.
- BerislavLopac 16y ago
  My clue was that she didn't show any percentage of his time being spent watching porn. It's inconceivable to me that an obviously straight, sexist man (HOPA remark) would spend all that time playing Farmville and none watching porn.
Gormo 16y ago
People who deliberately take photos for public display often use tripods and good lighting, irrespective of whether the story told by their photographs is real or fictional.

mdg 16y ago

Is that jQuery John ?

willwagner 16y ago
I think the article has the name wrong. In the article text, they spell the last name "Resig" but if you look at one of the screenshots, the actual name is "Rezig".

keithwarren 16y ago

Dye her hair red and she can play Anna Chapman in the Russian spy movie.

adamilardi 16y ago

This is a sad day. If you can't trust the internet who can you trust.

mindcrime 16y ago
The government?
- adamilardi 16y ago
  I just thought it would be hilarious if politicians started doing ASK HN: before they voted on a bill.. it would go like this... "I need to vote on this saving the children bill but I'm not sure it's the right thing and I'm also having trouble syncing my contacts from my ipad to my ipod please help" , joe politician

deleted 16y ago

[deleted]