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Unfortunately the person who owns putty.org started to use it to spread misinformation about vaccines and the pandemic, as you can see on the site today. This

Unfortunately the person who owns putty.org started to use it to spread misinformation about vaccines and the pandemic, as you can see on the site today. This recently [1][2] got a lot of attention on the web and here on HN, along with a post on Mastodon from the author [3] I imagine trying to disincentivize this and provide another shorter more official looking link is the hope here. [1] https://www.theregister.com/2025/07/17/puttyorg_website_controversy/ https://www.theregister.com/2025/07/17/puttyorg_website_cont... [2] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44579265 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44579265 [3] https://hachyderm.io/@simontatham/114846017785770922 https://hachyderm.io/@simontatham/114846017785770922

shermand89 1y ago
[flagged]
- perching_aix 1y ago
  Yes misinformation: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Yeadon https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Yeadon
teaearlgraycold 1y ago
> Since 2020 I have been speaking out against the fraudulent pandemic and the intentionally dangerous injections and my experience has been to have been censored and smeared. If you have not heard of me before, that's the reason. One weird trick to make your insignificance seem significant!
- 1970-01-01 1y ago
  Hilarious how putty.org hasn't been updated, and still has a FINAL WARNING video on the landing page. Extrapolated to the present time, all of us vaccinated individuals are now suffering the big consequences. Too bad all nutjobs aren't so easy to disprove by simply taking a single large breath. :)
falleng0d 1y ago
[dead]
- perching_aix 1y ago
  What's the problem with them sharing they find it unfortunate?
- Hackbraten 1y ago
  That’s not how discourse works imho. Yeadon is making extraordinary claims, so the burden of explaining and backing up those claims should be on them, not on us. Until they do, there’s no point in addressing their concerns.
zo1 1y ago
This seems similar to the Notepad++ team using their platform to promote political viewpoints. The same thing happened with Facebook "pages", when they became a personal "soap box" by the owner of the page. It was downhill from there... You might as well turn the whole web into FB/Twitter/X/Insta promotional spam at that point.
- rokkamokka 1y ago
  It's one thing to say "stand with Ukraine", and an entirely different thing to spread vaccine misinformation...
  - account42 1y ago
    Sure, one is virtue signalling while the other has the potential of actually helping someone stay safe.
- kryptiskt 1y ago
  It's not at all similar, and that doesn't have anything to do with the quality or lack thereof of the viewpoints. The Notepad++ site is run by the authors and reflects their stance. Putty.org is run by an outside party who hijacks the reputation of the PuTTY project to push their agenda.
- SnuffBox 1y ago
  [flagged]
  - f1shy 1y ago
    You mean that ironically or seriously?
nailer 1y ago
[flagged]
- RALaBarge 1y ago
  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Yeadon#COVID-19_misinformation https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Yeadon#COVID-19_misinf...
  - nailer 1y ago
    [flagged]
    - deleted 1y ago
      [deleted]
    - perching_aix 1y ago
      "This sentence is false."
- zettabomb 1y ago
  Argument from authority is not particularly strong. The information on putty.org is considered misinformation by the vast majority of professionals in the field of infectious diseases.
  - deleted 1y ago
    [deleted]
  - wang_li 1y ago
    [flagged]
  - nailer 1y ago
    I thought it was argument from expertise? And while you’re on the topic of epistemology truth isn’t determined by how common an idea is.
rconti 1y ago
Did putty.org once link to the putty software? Or an alternative SSH client? Why did the site ever become popular? I'm trying to grok this, but all of the posts sort of obliquely refer to things that happened in the past (even the old HN links here), rather than explicitly just explain what the hell happened.
- Macha 1y ago
  It used to link to Putty _and_ to the domain owner's competing software: https://web.archive.org/web/20170822083048/http://www.putty.org/ https://web.archive.org/web/20170822083048/http://www.putty.... The domain owner seems to feel he was providing a service to putty by providing the short domain name and feels slighted that they are moving to have their own now that he is taking actions that they find more objectionable than just also linking to his competitor, but to be honest it always seemed some unethical squatting to me, based on the Putty devs not having the time to complete a UDRP process.
avar 1y ago
> Unfortunately the person who owns putty.org > started to use it to spread misinformation > about vaccines and[...] Isn't that rather fortunate in the grand scheme of things? It could have been a landing page monetizing various SSH clients for windows. Instead it's just some guy's website clearly unrelated to PuTTY. He's even gone out of his way to point people looking for PuTTY in the right direction. Who cares what his opinion is about anything else?

shermand89 1y ago

[flagged]

perching_aix 1y ago
Yes misinformation: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Yeadon https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Yeadon

teaearlgraycold 1y ago

> Since 2020 I have been speaking out against the fraudulent pandemic and the intentionally dangerous injections and my experience has been to have been censored and smeared. If you have not heard of me before, that's the reason. One weird trick to make your insignificance seem significant!

1970-01-01 1y ago
Hilarious how putty.org hasn't been updated, and still has a FINAL WARNING video on the landing page. Extrapolated to the present time, all of us vaccinated individuals are now suffering the big consequences. Too bad all nutjobs aren't so easy to disprove by simply taking a single large breath. :)

falleng0d 1y ago

[dead]

perching_aix 1y ago
What's the problem with them sharing they find it unfortunate?
Hackbraten 1y ago
That’s not how discourse works imho. Yeadon is making extraordinary claims, so the burden of explaining and backing up those claims should be on them, not on us. Until they do, there’s no point in addressing their concerns.

zo1 1y ago

This seems similar to the Notepad++ team using their platform to promote political viewpoints. The same thing happened with Facebook "pages", when they became a personal "soap box" by the owner of the page. It was downhill from there... You might as well turn the whole web into FB/Twitter/X/Insta promotional spam at that point.

rokkamokka 1y ago
It's one thing to say "stand with Ukraine", and an entirely different thing to spread vaccine misinformation...
- account42 1y ago
  Sure, one is virtue signalling while the other has the potential of actually helping someone stay safe.
kryptiskt 1y ago
It's not at all similar, and that doesn't have anything to do with the quality or lack thereof of the viewpoints. The Notepad++ site is run by the authors and reflects their stance. Putty.org is run by an outside party who hijacks the reputation of the PuTTY project to push their agenda.
SnuffBox 1y ago
[flagged]
- f1shy 1y ago
  You mean that ironically or seriously?

nailer 1y ago

[flagged]

RALaBarge 1y ago
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Yeadon#COVID-19_misinformation https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Yeadon#COVID-19_misinf...
- nailer 1y ago
  [flagged]
  - deleted 1y ago
    [deleted]
  - perching_aix 1y ago
    "This sentence is false."
zettabomb 1y ago
Argument from authority is not particularly strong. The information on putty.org is considered misinformation by the vast majority of professionals in the field of infectious diseases.
- deleted 1y ago
  [deleted]
- wang_li 1y ago
  [flagged]
- nailer 1y ago
  I thought it was argument from expertise? And while you’re on the topic of epistemology truth isn’t determined by how common an idea is.

rconti 1y ago

Did putty.org once link to the putty software? Or an alternative SSH client? Why did the site ever become popular? I'm trying to grok this, but all of the posts sort of obliquely refer to things that happened in the past (even the old HN links here), rather than explicitly just explain what the hell happened.

Macha 1y ago
It used to link to Putty _and_ to the domain owner's competing software: https://web.archive.org/web/20170822083048/http://www.putty.org/ https://web.archive.org/web/20170822083048/http://www.putty.... The domain owner seems to feel he was providing a service to putty by providing the short domain name and feels slighted that they are moving to have their own now that he is taking actions that they find more objectionable than just also linking to his competitor, but to be honest it always seemed some unethical squatting to me, based on the Putty devs not having the time to complete a UDRP process.

avar 1y ago

> Unfortunately the person who owns putty.org > started to use it to spread misinformation > about vaccines and[...] Isn't that rather fortunate in the grand scheme of things? It could have been a landing page monetizing various SSH clients for windows. Instead it's just some guy's website clearly unrelated to PuTTY. He's even gone out of his way to point people looking for PuTTY in the right direction. Who cares what his opinion is about anything else?