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I disagree with many of tptacek's opinions but honestly he's one of the reasons this site is great. He is capable of arguing with people with strongly opposing

I disagree with many of tptacek's opinions but honestly he's one of the reasons this site is great. He is capable of arguing with people with strongly opposing views with civility, which is something that is entirely too rare these days. He's also capable of admitting when he's wrong and being gracious when proven right. Also entirely too rare these days. I'd rather have a thousand tptaceks on this site than zero.

MisterWebz 13y ago
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6944628 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6944628 > Jesus, what a tool you are. How very civil and gracious.
- antiterra 13y ago
  Sometimes it's tough to contain righteous internet rage. I think he knows that crossed the line and that is why he deleted the comment.
  - anoncowherd 13y ago
    .. or he's doing Image Management.
- PavlovsCat 13y ago
  He deleted, i.e. retracted it. In full. To harp on about it instead of talking about the story kinda sucks. We're talking about mass surveillance and everything being recorded, and look at what we are doing. Repeat after me: every day is a new day.
- InclinedPlane 13y ago
  He's a human being, and thus imperfect. He's still much easier to have a conversation with than 99% of the posters on HN.
bane 13y ago
> He is capable of arguing with people with strongly opposing views with civility You're clearly talking about a different tptacek, widely known on this site for his coarsely abrasive, impossibly high friction, social interactions and not admitting he's wrong on issues trivial or important. He's also widely known for a being an expert in his field. All that being said, I agree with you that this site is more valuable with him on it and regularly participating. He's one of the actual experts in their field that makes this a much better forum than any other. IMHO, it's well worth the comment burn to talk and debate (friendly or not) with somebody of his caliber. And being wrong every once in a while (regardless of his rightness in this case) does not make him either incompetent or malicious. It just makes him human.
- sillysaurus2 13y ago
  tptacek, widely known on this site for his coarsely abrasive, impossibly high friction, social interactions and not admitting he's wrong on issues trivial or important. He's also widely known for a being an expert in his field. What are you talking about? Whatever caricature you're illustrating here is not Thomas Ptacek. With the way you've been talking, I would've suspected you were a newer member, but you've been around for three years or so. So I simply have no idea what you're talking about. Would you please point out precisely which comments you take issue with? https://www.hnsearch.com/search#request/comments&q=by%3Atptacek&sortby=points+desc&start=0 https://www.hnsearch.com/search#request/comments&q=by%3Atpta... I think the thing to remember about Thomas, and me, and everyone else, is that we're all human, and we all have different moods which influence our behavior. Thomas's, on average, is exemplary.
  - bane 13y ago
    I'm glad to see that he's got both of us defending him. I'm talking about the same tptacek who I've personally butted heads with where he couldn't even accept being wrong about how to make stew (looking back, that was exactly 1 year ago to the day!) I respect tptacek very much for his domain knowledge and expertise. He has great theories on hiring practices and cooking among others. He's one of the names I look for on HN. But he requires lots of care and effort. I have to mentally peel back about half of his posts to remove the snark and assholery and get to the juicy bits. But those bits are usually there and usually worth the effort to get to. That's okay, I'm a grown up and can deal with high friction in order to enjoy interacting with somebody who's truly intelligent. tptacek is just one of those types that comes with lots of smarts and lots of difficult personality and that's okay. And for the record I'm also aware that I can be rather high friction and assholish as well, and not nearly as insightful as tptacek.

MisterWebz 13y ago

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6944628 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6944628 > Jesus, what a tool you are. How very civil and gracious.

antiterra 13y ago
Sometimes it's tough to contain righteous internet rage. I think he knows that crossed the line and that is why he deleted the comment.
- anoncowherd 13y ago
  .. or he's doing Image Management.
PavlovsCat 13y ago
He deleted, i.e. retracted it. In full. To harp on about it instead of talking about the story kinda sucks. We're talking about mass surveillance and everything being recorded, and look at what we are doing. Repeat after me: every day is a new day.
InclinedPlane 13y ago
He's a human being, and thus imperfect. He's still much easier to have a conversation with than 99% of the posters on HN.

bane 13y ago

> He is capable of arguing with people with strongly opposing views with civility You're clearly talking about a different tptacek, widely known on this site for his coarsely abrasive, impossibly high friction, social interactions and not admitting he's wrong on issues trivial or important. He's also widely known for a being an expert in his field. All that being said, I agree with you that this site is more valuable with him on it and regularly participating. He's one of the actual experts in their field that makes this a much better forum than any other. IMHO, it's well worth the comment burn to talk and debate (friendly or not) with somebody of his caliber. And being wrong every once in a while (regardless of his rightness in this case) does not make him either incompetent or malicious. It just makes him human.

sillysaurus2 13y ago
tptacek, widely known on this site for his coarsely abrasive, impossibly high friction, social interactions and not admitting he's wrong on issues trivial or important. He's also widely known for a being an expert in his field. What are you talking about? Whatever caricature you're illustrating here is not Thomas Ptacek. With the way you've been talking, I would've suspected you were a newer member, but you've been around for three years or so. So I simply have no idea what you're talking about. Would you please point out precisely which comments you take issue with? https://www.hnsearch.com/search#request/comments&q=by%3Atptacek&sortby=points+desc&start=0 https://www.hnsearch.com/search#request/comments&q=by%3Atpta... I think the thing to remember about Thomas, and me, and everyone else, is that we're all human, and we all have different moods which influence our behavior. Thomas's, on average, is exemplary.
- bane 13y ago
  I'm glad to see that he's got both of us defending him. I'm talking about the same tptacek who I've personally butted heads with where he couldn't even accept being wrong about how to make stew (looking back, that was exactly 1 year ago to the day!) I respect tptacek very much for his domain knowledge and expertise. He has great theories on hiring practices and cooking among others. He's one of the names I look for on HN. But he requires lots of care and effort. I have to mentally peel back about half of his posts to remove the snark and assholery and get to the juicy bits. But those bits are usually there and usually worth the effort to get to. That's okay, I'm a grown up and can deal with high friction in order to enjoy interacting with somebody who's truly intelligent. tptacek is just one of those types that comes with lots of smarts and lots of difficult personality and that's okay. And for the record I'm also aware that I can be rather high friction and assholish as well, and not nearly as insightful as tptacek.