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Much prefer the title "Moss Graffiti" to the link-bait original title "Using A Blender, This Guy Executes The Coolest But Most Illegal DIY Project Ever." Cool

Much prefer the title "Moss Graffiti" to the link-bait original title "Using A Blender, This Guy Executes The Coolest But Most Illegal DIY Project Ever." Cool project, awful title. "Most Illegal DIY Project Ever?" Seriously, I thought it was going to be a home-made suitcase nuke.

mrkickling 12y ago
I love how it is the most illegal DIY project ever. What is that based on?
- codezero 12y ago
  most illegal ever? probably based on nothing, but since it's still a form of graffiti, it would generally be illegal unless you own the property you're adding moss to :P An alternate form of this is cleaning the sides of dirty buildings to leave messages/art.
- endgame 12y ago
  I hate the modern internet sometimes. I think the radioactive boy scout would be much less legal than moss graffiti, for starters: http://www.dangerouslaboratories.org/radscout.html http://www.dangerouslaboratories.org/radscout.html
  - aaren 12y ago
    That was an amazing read! Thank you :)
dang 12y ago
I hope everyone realizes that the HN guidelines call for changing titles when they are misleading or linkbait. Edit: What the guidelines say has always been the policy. For example, that's why we changed the linkbait title to "Moss Graffiti".
- chc 12y ago
  I think people know that, but I think they also know that HN policy for the past few years has been to revert user-supplied titles back to the original article title, so it's hard to know what the right thing is to do.
  - dang 12y ago
    No, that's a common misconception. The policy (and practice) have always been as the guidelines say; that's why we changed this story's title from the baity original to "Moss Graffiti". Perhaps I'll add this info to my remark above. I think the reason for the misconception is mostly sample bias. People don't see most of the cases that get silently fixed and/or don't realize that we fixed them. Only the ones that seem wrong stand out.
    - chc 12y ago
      I think the reason for the misconception is that Paul Graham actually said that it was the default policy. "The only way we can tell if a newly created title is accurate is to read the article, and we're not about to read every article submitted to HN. The only option is to revert to the original title, which is at least what the author intended." (https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6572466 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6572466) After that, it seemed like people kind of gave up the fight and just started leaving the original title more often. (I don't mean to argue with you here. I gladly accept that it is not the way that post seemed to indicate. I'm just trying to identify the source of the disconnect.)
      - dang 12y ago
        He was talking about the general case, and that's still true. But there are exceptions. It's usually easy to tell that a title is linkbait; indeed, that basically follows from the definition. And users, who can and do read the articles, protest if the title is false. The only thing we changed about titles since PG handed off moderation duty is to emphasize that it's ok to take other language from the article, such as a subtitle, a photo caption, or a representative sentence, if the formal title doesn't represent the article accurately. It's nearly always possible to do this, so it strikes the right balance between wanting informative titles and not letting submitters editorialize. But even that is barely a change. PG mentioned subtitles in the post you quoted.
valarauca1 12y ago
DIY nukes aren't actually that hard, especially with gun type bombs. A team of undergraduate engineers wouldn't have much problem. The only challenge is getting fissionable materials.

mrkickling 12y ago

I love how it is the most illegal DIY project ever. What is that based on?

codezero 12y ago
most illegal ever? probably based on nothing, but since it's still a form of graffiti, it would generally be illegal unless you own the property you're adding moss to :P An alternate form of this is cleaning the sides of dirty buildings to leave messages/art.
endgame 12y ago
I hate the modern internet sometimes. I think the radioactive boy scout would be much less legal than moss graffiti, for starters: http://www.dangerouslaboratories.org/radscout.html http://www.dangerouslaboratories.org/radscout.html
- aaren 12y ago
  That was an amazing read! Thank you :)

dang 12y ago

I hope everyone realizes that the HN guidelines call for changing titles when they are misleading or linkbait. Edit: What the guidelines say has always been the policy. For example, that's why we changed the linkbait title to "Moss Graffiti".

chc 12y ago
I think people know that, but I think they also know that HN policy for the past few years has been to revert user-supplied titles back to the original article title, so it's hard to know what the right thing is to do.
- dang 12y ago
  No, that's a common misconception. The policy (and practice) have always been as the guidelines say; that's why we changed this story's title from the baity original to "Moss Graffiti". Perhaps I'll add this info to my remark above. I think the reason for the misconception is mostly sample bias. People don't see most of the cases that get silently fixed and/or don't realize that we fixed them. Only the ones that seem wrong stand out.
  - chc 12y ago
    I think the reason for the misconception is that Paul Graham actually said that it was the default policy. "The only way we can tell if a newly created title is accurate is to read the article, and we're not about to read every article submitted to HN. The only option is to revert to the original title, which is at least what the author intended." (https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6572466 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6572466) After that, it seemed like people kind of gave up the fight and just started leaving the original title more often. (I don't mean to argue with you here. I gladly accept that it is not the way that post seemed to indicate. I'm just trying to identify the source of the disconnect.)
    - dang 12y ago
      He was talking about the general case, and that's still true. But there are exceptions. It's usually easy to tell that a title is linkbait; indeed, that basically follows from the definition. And users, who can and do read the articles, protest if the title is false. The only thing we changed about titles since PG handed off moderation duty is to emphasize that it's ok to take other language from the article, such as a subtitle, a photo caption, or a representative sentence, if the formal title doesn't represent the article accurately. It's nearly always possible to do this, so it strikes the right balance between wanting informative titles and not letting submitters editorialize. But even that is barely a change. PG mentioned subtitles in the post you quoted.

valarauca1 12y ago

DIY nukes aren't actually that hard, especially with gun type bombs. A team of undergraduate engineers wouldn't have much problem. The only challenge is getting fissionable materials.