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I dont know what CTF stands for so I dont know if I am interested in this article or learning anything about it. Maybe I am. Are you really arguing for not jus

I dont know what CTF stands for so I dont know if I am interested in this article or learning anything about it. Maybe I am. Are you really arguing for not just typing out whatever 3 words this stands for once in the name of clarity?

PunchyHamster 5mo ago
it's the first result I get on anonymous google search. It's like complaining about not spelling C in "bake cake in 170 C"
- ruszki 5mo ago
  If it means capture the flag, then it means a completely different capture the flag for almost everybody. I searched for it, read the first paragraph, and I still don’t know what the fuck is the topic. According to Wikipedia it’s a very new meaning. I could figure out only because of searching for “HCKSYD” and others.
  - jere 5mo ago
    Is 30 years old very new? We're on a site for tech people. I would wager most are familiar with this term.
    - ruszki 5mo ago
      Its article is 5 years old… So, yeah, it’s new.
      - C4K3 5mo ago
        Its article was reorganized (moved from plain Capture the Flag to Capture the flag (cybersecurity)) 5 years ago. It's been on Wikipedia since 2004 https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Capture_the_flag&oldid=6112381 https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Capture_the_flag&...
        ruszki 5mo ago
        Nice catch, I didn't read that part.
    - sokoloff 5mo ago
      Most people on this site are also familiar with the “XKCD 10000”. But not all, so: https://xkcd.com/1053/ https://xkcd.com/1053/ (Amusingly, it even uses “30 years” as the timeframe.)
      - spoaceman7777 5mo ago
        More acronyms?? What the heck is an XKCD??? ;)
      - jere 5mo ago
        Classic of course. The point being: don't make fun of people for not knowing something. In this thread we're making fun of learned helplessness.
        ruszki 5mo ago
        You are making fun of people who are saying that this article is shit, without addressing that part at all.
        PunchyHamster 5mo ago
        consider 2 conversations "hey what X means?" "X means it" vs "I dont know what CTF stands for so I dont know if I am interested in this article or learning anything about it. Maybe I am. Are you really arguing for not just typing out whatever 3 words this stands for once in the name of clarity?" The commenter could just say the first instead of deciding his learned helplessness is everyone's else problem
        ruszki 5mo ago
        The commenter above replied to me, who checked what it is, which is clearly stated in my comment. So your comment cannot be applied to the guy who came up the first with "learned helplessness" in this thread, who replied to me. That guy clearly just wanted to shift the topic from that the article is shit, because they cannot do anything with it. Also yes, search for CTF is not simple regarding security, because first you need to know that you are searching something in the topic of security. Because every other usage of this is way more frequent. Especially that there is an other way more frequent computer related usage. And the article doesn't make this clear in its first 173 words for laymen. Even I had a problem with this, who is not at all layman, just never cared about this part of security. It's a bad article.
- fg137 5mo ago
  My search results for "open CTF format" beg to differ. Absolutely nothing even remotely related to "capture the flag". Bear in mind that Google search results, just like ChatGPT output, are highly personalized and non deterministic, so "it's there if you do a Google search" means almost nothing these days. In fact, I have no idea what's going on, so I came back to HN comments. Turns out it's "capture the flag" which I actually know, just not familiar with the acronym. Which is why I am 100% with the top level comment here.
- fartfeatures 5mo ago
  "bake cake in 170" is genuinely confusing at first glance though.
- mastermage 5mo ago
  There is so much wrong with this beginning with the fact that it would be correctly 170 °C (the degree is important because it implies an arbitrary scale) Additionaly Bake Cake in 170 is very not clear, especially considering you have two major Temperature Scales in use in the Kitchen.
bawolff 5mo ago
Yes, i would argue that people writing articles about niche interests aimed at other members of that niche are under no obligation to clarify it for people outside the niche. They aren't your teacher. They aren't trying to send the content to you. They are just blogging on their own website for their own audience. And its hardly unique to this article. If you are writing about the nitty gritty of linux networking, you probably aren't defining what TCP or UDP means. If you are writing a super detailed article comparing and contrasting plot structures of different animes, you probably aren't going to start by explaining what the word anime means. Etc I'm not saying the world should be all RTFM, but if you are reading some sort of specialized content, then yes i think its a reasonable assumption that the reader has some basic background knowledge on the topic at hand, or is willing to do the research themselves.
- SOLAR_FIELDS 5mo ago
  Especially when you can literally just paste the top paragraph into your LLM of choice and ask it to explain it to you. In the time it took the OP of this thread to write out their complaint they could have just solved it themselves
nimchimpsky 5mo ago
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PunchyHamster 5mo ago

it's the first result I get on anonymous google search. It's like complaining about not spelling C in "bake cake in 170 C"

ruszki 5mo ago
If it means capture the flag, then it means a completely different capture the flag for almost everybody. I searched for it, read the first paragraph, and I still don’t know what the fuck is the topic. According to Wikipedia it’s a very new meaning. I could figure out only because of searching for “HCKSYD” and others.
- jere 5mo ago
  Is 30 years old very new? We're on a site for tech people. I would wager most are familiar with this term.
  - ruszki 5mo ago
    Its article is 5 years old… So, yeah, it’s new.
    - C4K3 5mo ago
      Its article was reorganized (moved from plain Capture the Flag to Capture the flag (cybersecurity)) 5 years ago. It's been on Wikipedia since 2004 https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Capture_the_flag&oldid=6112381 https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Capture_the_flag&...
      - ruszki 5mo ago
        Nice catch, I didn't read that part.
  - sokoloff 5mo ago
    Most people on this site are also familiar with the “XKCD 10000”. But not all, so: https://xkcd.com/1053/ https://xkcd.com/1053/ (Amusingly, it even uses “30 years” as the timeframe.)
    - spoaceman7777 5mo ago
      More acronyms?? What the heck is an XKCD??? ;)
    - jere 5mo ago
      Classic of course. The point being: don't make fun of people for not knowing something. In this thread we're making fun of learned helplessness.
      - ruszki 5mo ago
        You are making fun of people who are saying that this article is shit, without addressing that part at all.
        PunchyHamster 5mo ago
        consider 2 conversations "hey what X means?" "X means it" vs "I dont know what CTF stands for so I dont know if I am interested in this article or learning anything about it. Maybe I am. Are you really arguing for not just typing out whatever 3 words this stands for once in the name of clarity?" The commenter could just say the first instead of deciding his learned helplessness is everyone's else problem
        ruszki 5mo ago
        The commenter above replied to me, who checked what it is, which is clearly stated in my comment. So your comment cannot be applied to the guy who came up the first with "learned helplessness" in this thread, who replied to me. That guy clearly just wanted to shift the topic from that the article is shit, because they cannot do anything with it. Also yes, search for CTF is not simple regarding security, because first you need to know that you are searching something in the topic of security. Because every other usage of this is way more frequent. Especially that there is an other way more frequent computer related usage. And the article doesn't make this clear in its first 173 words for laymen. Even I had a problem with this, who is not at all layman, just never cared about this part of security. It's a bad article.
fg137 5mo ago
My search results for "open CTF format" beg to differ. Absolutely nothing even remotely related to "capture the flag". Bear in mind that Google search results, just like ChatGPT output, are highly personalized and non deterministic, so "it's there if you do a Google search" means almost nothing these days. In fact, I have no idea what's going on, so I came back to HN comments. Turns out it's "capture the flag" which I actually know, just not familiar with the acronym. Which is why I am 100% with the top level comment here.
fartfeatures 5mo ago
"bake cake in 170" is genuinely confusing at first glance though.
mastermage 5mo ago
There is so much wrong with this beginning with the fact that it would be correctly 170 °C (the degree is important because it implies an arbitrary scale) Additionaly Bake Cake in 170 is very not clear, especially considering you have two major Temperature Scales in use in the Kitchen.

bawolff 5mo ago

Yes, i would argue that people writing articles about niche interests aimed at other members of that niche are under no obligation to clarify it for people outside the niche. They aren't your teacher. They aren't trying to send the content to you. They are just blogging on their own website for their own audience. And its hardly unique to this article. If you are writing about the nitty gritty of linux networking, you probably aren't defining what TCP or UDP means. If you are writing a super detailed article comparing and contrasting plot structures of different animes, you probably aren't going to start by explaining what the word anime means. Etc I'm not saying the world should be all RTFM, but if you are reading some sort of specialized content, then yes i think its a reasonable assumption that the reader has some basic background knowledge on the topic at hand, or is willing to do the research themselves.

SOLAR_FIELDS 5mo ago
Especially when you can literally just paste the top paragraph into your LLM of choice and ask it to explain it to you. In the time it took the OP of this thread to write out their complaint they could have just solved it themselves

nimchimpsky 5mo ago

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