3 ms·
I will kindly suggest that in the future, instead of phrasing advice in the form of "Any particular reason you didn't do the thing which to me is obviously the
by khazhou 8y ago
I will kindly suggest that in the future, instead of phrasing advice in the form of "Any particular reason you didn't do the thing which to me is obviously the only smart thing to do?", you could give feedback more prescriptively and without any implied accusations.
For example:
"peteforde, in the future please do the following instead of posting on HN:
- Google "how to report security issues to <whatever company>"
- In this case, you will be directed to facebook.com/whitehat
- You should try to reproduce this independently first, after reading the best practices for doing so at the URL above.
And, there may be a five-figure sum for you if you indeed find a vulnerability, and report it as above."
- eganist 8y agoYour guidance has been noted and is appreciated. I'm leaving my initial post unedited not only for context but because I feel it conveys a certain gravity as to the discoverability of the best practice that was missed here. I'm generally a fan of the feedback pattern you described... but not always. Egregious impermissible disclosures of any sort--security, PHI/PCI/PII/FERPA, etc. all fall in the "not always" bucket for me.
- insickness 8y agoTo me the wording, "Any particular reason you didn't do x?" wasn't an implied accusation. In fact it was the opposite. It was assumed that the original poster had taken all measures and had a good reason why they didn't take the action. It is similar to saying, "Have you considered...?" It is a less combative way to say, "You should have done x," which does implied that the original poster did something wrong.
- kapauldo 8y agoIt's a hostile way to talk to someone who's doing something nice