4 ms·

I know people smarter than the vast majority of HN users (how can this really be judged, sure, but I'd place money on it, certainly far, far smarter than me) wh

by corin_ 15y ago

I know people smarter than the vast majority of HN users (how can this really be judged, sure, but I'd place money on it, certainly far, far smarter than me) who wouldn't know those, and I know many, many people who are damn smart (just not fitting them into the "smarter than most people here", but definitely smart enough to belong here if they wanted to) who also wouldn't know them.

raganwald 15y ago
I beg your pardon, I was trying to crack a funny. It seems it is impossible to parody an extremist belief without somebody mistaking it for the general article. I was attempting to parody the fundamentalist debating pedant point of view. Poe’s Law strikes again: http://rationalwiki.org/wiki/Poes_Law http://rationalwiki.org/wiki/Poes_Law
- corin_ 15y ago
  The depressing thing is I can imagine people genuinely making the exact suggestion you made, with no humour at all. Sorry!
  - Bud 15y ago
    Er, HN already does limit access via arbitrarily-chosen tests of user quality. They just chose different tests. :) I don't think it'd be a 100% bad idea to implement some sort of knowledge-based testing, wire it up to varying levels of initial access/privs on a site, and see what happens, as an experiment. User privs could then evolve once the user had actually posted or commented or rated things.
    - eru 15y ago
      What are those tests? I haven't joined HN in ages (and then, only once), so I'm not up to date on the current procedures.
      - moheeb 15y ago
        You have to come up with a username AND password!
        pyre 15y ago
        Or remember your Facebook/Twitter/etc username/password.
  - deleted 15y ago
    [deleted]
  - dhimes 15y ago
    If it's any consolation, he got me last week. http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2846306 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2846306
- Joeboy 15y ago
  I'm disappointed - I think your idea is brilliant (although I wouldn't go with those examples)
  - raganwald 15y ago
    Although my tongue was in my cheek, I think there’s at least a grain of truth in each of those examples.
    - mkr-hn 15y ago
      It's possible to recognize that a fallacy is a fallacy without knowing the name. Asking "Is this a valid criticism?" kicks in the part of the brain that thinks about things. If the person answers "Duh," you put them in some kind of post jail and make them earn their way out. I couldn't have named all those, but I recognized them as false criticisms immediately.
- Shenglong 15y ago
  I laughed - don't worry.
- ScottBurson 15y ago
  Oh crap. I caught your joke about pope-approved condoms the other day, but this time you had me going. I found this puzzle both entertaining and educational. I guess that means I'm not qualified to post here ;-}
- damoncali 15y ago
  A sign of great writing: Half the readers think it's serious, the other half think it's a joke. Well done.
mikeash 15y ago
They could look it up.... I have a really dumb spam filter on my blog which simply asks that the user "Type the word 'humour', but with American spelling". I've had a couple of complaints that this request is unfair to non-native speakers. My response is that you don't have to know it, you just have to know how to look it up. (And yes, I saw that this stuff wasn't serious, but I thought it was a worthwhile point to make in any case. CAPTCHAs don't need to be things that users can pass without outside help.)
olavk 15y ago
Never mind if people are smart or stupid. The important thing for a forum is if the participants are willing and able to provide thoughtful and interesting comments. Simple quizzes like the above (joke or not) might filter out a lot of lazy trolls up front. Everybody with a genuine interest in the forum should easily be able to find the answers using Google, and might even find it fun to learn a bit. More importantly, after having made a bit of effort to be allowed in, the users might value the forum more.

by corin_ 15y ago

raganwald 15y ago

I beg your pardon, I was trying to crack a funny. It seems it is impossible to parody an extremist belief without somebody mistaking it for the general article. I was attempting to parody the fundamentalist debating pedant point of view. Poe’s Law strikes again: http://rationalwiki.org/wiki/Poes_Law http://rationalwiki.org/wiki/Poes_Law

corin_ 15y ago
The depressing thing is I can imagine people genuinely making the exact suggestion you made, with no humour at all. Sorry!
- Bud 15y ago
  Er, HN already does limit access via arbitrarily-chosen tests of user quality. They just chose different tests. :) I don't think it'd be a 100% bad idea to implement some sort of knowledge-based testing, wire it up to varying levels of initial access/privs on a site, and see what happens, as an experiment. User privs could then evolve once the user had actually posted or commented or rated things.
  - eru 15y ago
    What are those tests? I haven't joined HN in ages (and then, only once), so I'm not up to date on the current procedures.
    - moheeb 15y ago
      You have to come up with a username AND password!
      - pyre 15y ago
        Or remember your Facebook/Twitter/etc username/password.
- deleted 15y ago
  [deleted]
- dhimes 15y ago
  If it's any consolation, he got me last week. http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2846306 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2846306
Joeboy 15y ago
I'm disappointed - I think your idea is brilliant (although I wouldn't go with those examples)
- raganwald 15y ago
  Although my tongue was in my cheek, I think there’s at least a grain of truth in each of those examples.
  - mkr-hn 15y ago
    It's possible to recognize that a fallacy is a fallacy without knowing the name. Asking "Is this a valid criticism?" kicks in the part of the brain that thinks about things. If the person answers "Duh," you put them in some kind of post jail and make them earn their way out. I couldn't have named all those, but I recognized them as false criticisms immediately.
Shenglong 15y ago
I laughed - don't worry.
ScottBurson 15y ago
Oh crap. I caught your joke about pope-approved condoms the other day, but this time you had me going. I found this puzzle both entertaining and educational. I guess that means I'm not qualified to post here ;-}
damoncali 15y ago
A sign of great writing: Half the readers think it's serious, the other half think it's a joke. Well done.

mikeash 15y ago

They could look it up.... I have a really dumb spam filter on my blog which simply asks that the user "Type the word 'humour', but with American spelling". I've had a couple of complaints that this request is unfair to non-native speakers. My response is that you don't have to know it, you just have to know how to look it up. (And yes, I saw that this stuff wasn't serious, but I thought it was a worthwhile point to make in any case. CAPTCHAs don't need to be things that users can pass without outside help.)

olavk 15y ago

Never mind if people are smart or stupid. The important thing for a forum is if the participants are willing and able to provide thoughtful and interesting comments. Simple quizzes like the above (joke or not) might filter out a lot of lazy trolls up front. Everybody with a genuine interest in the forum should easily be able to find the answers using Google, and might even find it fun to learn a bit. More importantly, after having made a bit of effort to be allowed in, the users might value the forum more.