5 ms·
Take a look at https://news.ycombinator.com/leaders https://news.ycombinator.com/leaders The user you're suspicious of is pretty well-known in this community.
by wtallis 9mo ago
Take a look at https://news.ycombinator.com/leaders https://news.ycombinator.com/leaders
The user you're suspicious of is pretty well-known in this community.
- delusional 9mo agoHow is this whole comment chain not a textbook case of "argument from authority"? I claim A, a guys says. Why would I trust you somebody else responds. Well he's pretty well known on the internet forum we're all on, the third guy says, adding nothing to the conversation.
- hiccup_socks 9mo agoit is literally just "authority said so". and its ridiculous that someone's comment got flagged for not worshiping at the alter of tptacek. they weren't even particularly rude about it. i guarantee if i said what tptacek said, and someone replied with exactly what malfist said, they would not have been flagged. i probably would have been downvoted. why appeal to authority is totally cool as long as tptacek is the authority is way fucking beyond me. one of those HN quirks. HN people fucking love tptacek and take his word as gospel.
- tptacek 9mo agoI am very lovable.
- gnabgib 9mo ago:| iyho?
- hiccup_socks 9mo agowow, very cute reply. also love that mods dont step in and instead they leave the comment flagged. ridiculous.
- fc417fc802 9mo agoIt is an argument of authority but that's not always a bad thing. I think it's a bit out of keeping with the supposed point of this site (ie intellectual inquiry) but when it comes to rapidly evolving technologies like this one it can still add value on the whole.
- blks 9mo agoWe saw quite a number of previously respectful members get a glaze over their eyes with LLMs. If they also work for the company making claims, this makes it even more untrustworthy
- drekipus 9mo ago[flagged]
- godelski 9mo ago[flagged]
- wtallis 9mo agoI wasn't at all saying that points = credibility. I was saying that points = not unknown. Enough people around here know who he is, and if he didn't have credibility on this topic he'd be getting down voted instead of voted to the top.
- godelski 9mo agoIs that meaningfully different? If you read malfist's point as "tptacek's point isn't valuable because it's from some random person on the internet" then the problem is "random person on the internet" = "unknown credentials". In group, out group, notoriety, points, whatever are not the issue. I'll put it this way, I don't give a shit about Robert Downy Jr's opinion on AI technology. His notoriety "means nothing to anybody". But instead, I sure do care about Hinton's (even if I disagree with him). malfist asked why they should care. You said points. You should have said "tptacek is known to do security work, see his profile". Done. Much more direct. Answers the actual question. Instead you pointed to points, which only makes him "not a stranger" at best but still doesn't answer the question. Intended or not "you should believe tptacek because he has a lot of points" is a reasonable interpretation of what you said.
- wtallis 9mo agoPointing to the profile leads someone on the path of understanding why to trust tptacek on security issues. Pointing to his points on HN explains why lots of users here already know that he's credible in this area and will recognize his username and upvote his comments on this topic and know better than to blindly accuse him of being a just a random person on the internet. The problematic, ignorant comment that has been flagged asserted that what tptacek says "means nothing to anybody else", which is a very wrong statement about his role in the HN community.
- 9mo ago