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> "Would it make a difference if I told you that the pseudonymous internet commenter signed their comment "Source: I am a XYZ"?" On Hacker News, from a comment

> "Would it make a difference if I told you that the pseudonymous internet commenter signed their comment "Source: I am a XYZ"?" On Hacker News, from a commenter with an established reputation? It would definitely make me reconsider. More importantly, the line helps establish the context and scope of the observation. "Source: I'm a firefighter" both establishes that this person is speaking from experience and training regarding emergency response, and it establishes that the person is not a part of the Coast Guard and therefore their observation may not necessarily reflect the specific details of CG procedure vs FD procedure.

dfc 12y ago
I realize I am in the minority here but I really think you are begging the question by saying this "establishes that this person is speaking from experience and training regarding emergency response." Maybe we have different understandings of the definition of "establish"?
- lotharbot 12y ago
  I find it unnecessary to always include the caveat "establishes ... unless the person is lying". In particular: 1) this is not a contentious discussion wherein someone might be tempted to fake credentials/experience in order to "win" one side of the argument (low reward) 2) HN is the sort of place where you tend to run into people with various types of experience, which also means people who fake credentials/experience have a hard time passing themselves off as legitimate (high risk) 3) the commenter in question has an established HN profile, which is evidence (though not proof) that he says generally correct and worthwhile things. It seems unlikely that he'd spend as long as he has cultivating his profile/comment history and then suddenly decide to make up a bogus firefighter story for no reason. 4) In the highly likely event that the guy isn't lying, my statement stands: including "source: I'm [job]" is a useful statement because it establishes the context and scope of the observations being made, particularly the type of experience and the degree to which it relates to the article in question. It's not, as you suppose, a comment designed to "win" or "shut down" discussion; it's a way to provide readers with information that helps them understand the perspective being shared and helps them understand what types of questions different people in the discussion might be best suited to answer.

dfc 12y ago

I realize I am in the minority here but I really think you are begging the question by saying this "establishes that this person is speaking from experience and training regarding emergency response." Maybe we have different understandings of the definition of "establish"?

lotharbot 12y ago
I find it unnecessary to always include the caveat "establishes ... unless the person is lying". In particular: 1) this is not a contentious discussion wherein someone might be tempted to fake credentials/experience in order to "win" one side of the argument (low reward) 2) HN is the sort of place where you tend to run into people with various types of experience, which also means people who fake credentials/experience have a hard time passing themselves off as legitimate (high risk) 3) the commenter in question has an established HN profile, which is evidence (though not proof) that he says generally correct and worthwhile things. It seems unlikely that he'd spend as long as he has cultivating his profile/comment history and then suddenly decide to make up a bogus firefighter story for no reason. 4) In the highly likely event that the guy isn't lying, my statement stands: including "source: I'm [job]" is a useful statement because it establishes the context and scope of the observations being made, particularly the type of experience and the degree to which it relates to the article in question. It's not, as you suppose, a comment designed to "win" or "shut down" discussion; it's a way to provide readers with information that helps them understand the perspective being shared and helps them understand what types of questions different people in the discussion might be best suited to answer.