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Honest question: What is LARPing in this context? Live action role playing doesn't seem to fit the context...

aidenn0 7y ago
It is live action role playing. The implication is that they are just pretending to care about privacy by going through motions that are only vaguely related to actual privacy.
- gentleman11 7y ago
  As somebody who is friends with some LARPers, I find the usage here to be a little rude. No (sane) larper tries to convince anyone that their world is real, nor do they believe it is real, which is the parallel being drawn
  - yori 7y ago
    Yes, I didn't get the usage of the term "LARP" in this context too. It comes off as rude and condescending to both LARPers and email users. I am not sure the term fits appropriately in this context. All LARPers are aware that they are role playing in a game, not the real world, and they do not pretend otherwise.
    - tptacek 7y ago
      I certainly don't intend any offense to LARPers in general, virtually none of whom use encrypted email. Nor, indeed, email users, among whom I count myself! No, I'm pretty specific about where my criticism is aimed.
    - Freak_NL 7y ago
      To larp as a verb applied to a discussion that is not about actual LARP activities (the primary sense of this word) carries a strong connotation of rudeness. Etymologically it probably emerged in the infamous *chan-culture, and is in active use there in the sense of ‘pretend play’ or ‘on-line role-playing’. It can be used to signal, in a derogatory way, that you feel that the other is spinning a yarn or indulging in a fantasy, without declaring the fictive nature of their comments, in order to provoke responses and bait others into participating. I wouldn't use this word in polite conversation, unless you are actually talking about live action role-playing.
  - LARP1234 7y ago
    1. LARPing is nomenculture in the infosec (netsec/"cybersecurity") world. It means someone is taking security a bit too seriously, like they're in a James Bond movie. They've fallen into delusions and paranoia that everyone has the capability of a state actor, and that all systems and all actions should be considered with this notion in-mind. If someone is running TailsOS/Whonix/Qubes as their daily driver OS, and only browses from TOR, connected through a VPN/cellphone tether/coffee shop WiFi, with full hard-drive encryption using VeraCrypt+hidden partitions with a killswitch to zero out the harddrive if a certain password is entered, and runs their laptop with no battery, with a CoreBoot/LibreBoot flashed BIOS -- then they are taking this shit way too seriously and will be chided as a LARPer. Yes yes, I understand security is important -- I used to be a vulnerability researcher who transitioned to "red teaming" for a government agency -- but the above is taking things too far, especially if you're just a layman that barely makes it on anybody's radar. That's LARPing. It's like when a script kiddie buys a DDoS service, and calls themself a "hacker," for overloading a server (AnonSec/Anonymous I'm looking at you, morons). It's roleplaying, it's childish, and it will get ridiculed for its self-aggrandizing. 2. I don't know why, but everytime someone mentions that they're offended or miffed about something someone else said, especially on the internet, I have a very hard time taking them seriously. I believe it's because I grew up on hearty banter, and anyone that couldn't hang was, in my eyes, a chode. No disrespect, but I wanted to share that insight with you. Maybe it'll come in-handy somewhere down the line.
    - sandov 7y ago
      A couple of observations: 1. To the outside world, a LARPer might be indistinguishable from someone that actually needs perfect opsec. Maybe that LARPer in the coffee shop is Ross Ulbricht. 2. If one day you actually need real encryption, it will help if you've LARPed in the past.
  - aidenn0 7y ago
    I agree it's a little rude. For the meaning behind the choice from the author see this comment: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22372065 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22372065
- cjbprime 7y ago
  One could also use the phrase "cargo culting", perhaps -- carrying out actions that seem associated with a good outcome in a context that provides none.
  - tsimionescu 7y ago
    I think the implication is different - LARPers may or may not be using a useful technique, but they don't really care about the outcome. If they're sword-fighting, they may use actual sword-fighting skills, but they don't really care if they get it wrong and they get hit - it's just a wooden sword. Cargo-culting implies you recally do care about the outcome, but you don't know how to get it, and the technique you have is copied poorly from someone else. To extend things, it's true that if you are about to go in a duel to the death and you are preparing by studying how LARPers sword-fight, you may be Cargo-culting during the duel.
pnako 7y ago
People like cypherpunks who like to use sophisticated security tools and encryption to protect their secrets, which generally are messages they post publicly and open source code they put on Github.

It is live action role playing. The implication is that they are just pretending to care about privacy by going through motions that are only vaguely related to actual privacy.

gentleman11 7y ago
As somebody who is friends with some LARPers, I find the usage here to be a little rude. No (sane) larper tries to convince anyone that their world is real, nor do they believe it is real, which is the parallel being drawn
- yori 7y ago
  Yes, I didn't get the usage of the term "LARP" in this context too. It comes off as rude and condescending to both LARPers and email users. I am not sure the term fits appropriately in this context. All LARPers are aware that they are role playing in a game, not the real world, and they do not pretend otherwise.
  - tptacek 7y ago
    I certainly don't intend any offense to LARPers in general, virtually none of whom use encrypted email. Nor, indeed, email users, among whom I count myself! No, I'm pretty specific about where my criticism is aimed.
  - Freak_NL 7y ago
    To larp as a verb applied to a discussion that is not about actual LARP activities (the primary sense of this word) carries a strong connotation of rudeness. Etymologically it probably emerged in the infamous *chan-culture, and is in active use there in the sense of ‘pretend play’ or ‘on-line role-playing’. It can be used to signal, in a derogatory way, that you feel that the other is spinning a yarn or indulging in a fantasy, without declaring the fictive nature of their comments, in order to provoke responses and bait others into participating. I wouldn't use this word in polite conversation, unless you are actually talking about live action role-playing.
- LARP1234 7y ago
  1. LARPing is nomenculture in the infosec (netsec/"cybersecurity") world. It means someone is taking security a bit too seriously, like they're in a James Bond movie. They've fallen into delusions and paranoia that everyone has the capability of a state actor, and that all systems and all actions should be considered with this notion in-mind. If someone is running TailsOS/Whonix/Qubes as their daily driver OS, and only browses from TOR, connected through a VPN/cellphone tether/coffee shop WiFi, with full hard-drive encryption using VeraCrypt+hidden partitions with a killswitch to zero out the harddrive if a certain password is entered, and runs their laptop with no battery, with a CoreBoot/LibreBoot flashed BIOS -- then they are taking this shit way too seriously and will be chided as a LARPer. Yes yes, I understand security is important -- I used to be a vulnerability researcher who transitioned to "red teaming" for a government agency -- but the above is taking things too far, especially if you're just a layman that barely makes it on anybody's radar. That's LARPing. It's like when a script kiddie buys a DDoS service, and calls themself a "hacker," for overloading a server (AnonSec/Anonymous I'm looking at you, morons). It's roleplaying, it's childish, and it will get ridiculed for its self-aggrandizing. 2. I don't know why, but everytime someone mentions that they're offended or miffed about something someone else said, especially on the internet, I have a very hard time taking them seriously. I believe it's because I grew up on hearty banter, and anyone that couldn't hang was, in my eyes, a chode. No disrespect, but I wanted to share that insight with you. Maybe it'll come in-handy somewhere down the line.
  - sandov 7y ago
    A couple of observations: 1. To the outside world, a LARPer might be indistinguishable from someone that actually needs perfect opsec. Maybe that LARPer in the coffee shop is Ross Ulbricht. 2. If one day you actually need real encryption, it will help if you've LARPed in the past.
- aidenn0 7y ago
  I agree it's a little rude. For the meaning behind the choice from the author see this comment: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22372065 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22372065
cjbprime 7y ago
One could also use the phrase "cargo culting", perhaps -- carrying out actions that seem associated with a good outcome in a context that provides none.
- tsimionescu 7y ago
  I think the implication is different - LARPers may or may not be using a useful technique, but they don't really care about the outcome. If they're sword-fighting, they may use actual sword-fighting skills, but they don't really care if they get it wrong and they get hit - it's just a wooden sword. Cargo-culting implies you recally do care about the outcome, but you don't know how to get it, and the technique you have is copied poorly from someone else. To extend things, it's true that if you are about to go in a duel to the death and you are preparing by studying how LARPers sword-fight, you may be Cargo-culting during the duel.

pnako 7y ago

People like cypherpunks who like to use sophisticated security tools and encryption to protect their secrets, which generally are messages they post publicly and open source code they put on Github.