4 ms·

Genuine question: why do you ask?

olliej 4y ago
I pondered that myself and then realized we’d intersected on some security of iMessage stuff the other day, so it’s reasonable for them to ask “is this a marketing shill?”. Which to be clear I’m not, I think this stuff is interesting, just as I think the Google security posts are. (I just googled and it does look like it’s not as obvious anymore, apparently DJ Olliej is much more popular :D)
- glhaynes 4y ago
  It just would seem like a more interesting question if this post was a link promoting your private thoughts rather than a generic link to the public blog of one of the largest companies on earth. But maybe the question wasn’t really related to the post in particular.
  - olliej 4y ago
    Like I said we were talking about iMessage security in comments yesterday (or maybe this morning?) so presumably if the next time they saw my nick was in an Apple blog submission they became suspicious that I was a shill. Given that specific context I don’t think it’s wholly unreasonable to question things. The phrasin of the question is obviously unpleasant to me as it does come off as accusatory (due to the conspiratorial implication you get from the “no weaseling” text). But again if someone was a shill you probably would want a question like that. But I’d expect a shill to just not acknowledge the question - it is afaict being fairly heavily downvoted which I don’t think is reasonable either (because everyone loves fake internet points :) ) as that would benefit a shill/marketing person. Anyway to be super clear again: anything I say is my personal thoughts and opinions and in no way reflects what any of my employers, past or present may be thinking or doing. I guess I could put that in my HN bio? I hadn’t previously because I do try to separate my identity from my job, as when I first started out in tech I did not do that, and it was unhealthy.
throw10920 4y ago
From a quick look at their comment history, "sneak" doesn't like Apple very much.

I pondered that myself and then realized we’d intersected on some security of iMessage stuff the other day, so it’s reasonable for them to ask “is this a marketing shill?”. Which to be clear I’m not, I think this stuff is interesting, just as I think the Google security posts are. (I just googled and it does look like it’s not as obvious anymore, apparently DJ Olliej is much more popular :D)

glhaynes 4y ago
It just would seem like a more interesting question if this post was a link promoting your private thoughts rather than a generic link to the public blog of one of the largest companies on earth. But maybe the question wasn’t really related to the post in particular.
- olliej 4y ago
  Like I said we were talking about iMessage security in comments yesterday (or maybe this morning?) so presumably if the next time they saw my nick was in an Apple blog submission they became suspicious that I was a shill. Given that specific context I don’t think it’s wholly unreasonable to question things. The phrasin of the question is obviously unpleasant to me as it does come off as accusatory (due to the conspiratorial implication you get from the “no weaseling” text). But again if someone was a shill you probably would want a question like that. But I’d expect a shill to just not acknowledge the question - it is afaict being fairly heavily downvoted which I don’t think is reasonable either (because everyone loves fake internet points :) ) as that would benefit a shill/marketing person. Anyway to be super clear again: anything I say is my personal thoughts and opinions and in no way reflects what any of my employers, past or present may be thinking or doing. I guess I could put that in my HN bio? I hadn’t previously because I do try to separate my identity from my job, as when I first started out in tech I did not do that, and it was unhealthy.

throw10920 4y ago

From a quick look at their comment history, "sneak" doesn't like Apple very much.