How did this submission make it to the #10 slot, after being posted 38 minutes ago, and with a handful of comments?
This is a very boring update about some product specs. I cannot see how it could be interesting enough on it's on to merit such a rapid response. It's not even remotely interesting on its own (it's essentially a boring advert).
I noticed the same happened with a Purism advert yesterday.
I'm a natural cynic, so perhaps I'm fooling myself into seeing what I want to see, but is this an example of shilling? Does HN have a history of promoting adverts masquerading as content (Reddit style)?
Your reaction is understandable, but there are many topics that HN readers are just personally really into. When those interests don't line up with our own we usually look for some explanation to bridge the gap. But shillage is not that bridge; it's just a quick and easy move to resolve the cognitive dissonance.
> Please don't impute astroturfing or shillage. That degrades discussion and is usually mistaken. If you're worried about it, email us and we'll look at the data.
No. There are just a very large number of us who want Purism to continue their work. Even many of us who don't feel like we can afford their products yet.
I like Icecat (annoyingly not in the Debian repos).
I've also started to make use of text browsers. Links and Links2 are two that I use. Links2 is a nice halfway option as it will support images too.
I find them great for websites where I want to read info, but the interface is ironically designed to make that harder than it should be. News sites are a perfect example. Text browsers turn them from bloated billboards back into a readable format.
Perfect match. They both offer a heavily marketed appearance of being Freedom and Privacy respecting, but actually just relying on the ignorance of customers.
I'm not sure what other companies are trying the same thing. Staying with companies that definitely peddle your data and privacy versus investing in a company who hopefully promotes a better way seems pretty straightforward to me. What hardware and software vendors should the 'smart' customers be buying from?
A US-based VPN (or really any VPN) is only going to help someone so much, but what's wrong with Purism?
They have a distro that doesn't spy on you and hardware switches, and their upcoming phone seperates the modem as a USB peripheral to mitigate the modem's firmware.
I used to be quite active in a guitar forum. It was almost like a family - complete with crazy fights and arguments too! I bought and sold several guitars, amps, pedals, etc too. Not cheap stuff either, I would send £500+ to a random stranger and trust them to send me the guitar. That was how well the community integrated. People built up real respect, and you could rely on the fact they didn't want to lose it. That forum (probably the biggest in the UK) doesn't exist anymore.
I wouldn't even dream of having a Facebook account, nevermind participating in a community on there to that degree. I wouldn't even send £1 to a random person on Facebook!
I agree with him 100%. I also feel like this cancer has spread beyond social media. The internet as a whole feels rotten.
I grew up with the internet, so it felt natural to adopt things like social media (early days of FB), cloud storage, YouTube, etc etc. They just seemed to work their way into my life, aided by the adoption of smartphones (essentially a pocket computer).
Today, I've become a Free Software and Privacy advocate. I use libreboot+Debian, have a dumbphone, no social media, and aggressively restrict usage of services like Google et al.
But I feel this isn't going far enough. The real toxic element is the 90% of the internet which is not designed to bring any positivity or enrichment to my life. I recently made the decision to make my main workstation air-gap/offline and it was the best decision ever. My laptop will be my internet connected machine and I'll probably set-up some sort of whitelist on it. I also find it easier to physically isolate a laptop (e.g. put it in a drawer) outside of work hours and thereby regulate outside intrusion into my personal life.
I'm also very sympathetic to the concerns about not triggering the mass bovine herd of professional offense-takers. I work as a Doctor so it's a constant effort to police my opinions and actions on a daily basis. The internet used to be a refuge where I could do daft things like engage in a flame war on a random forum about a random obscure hobby. Today, the risk of inadvertently triggering someone and having it cross into my real life removes any incentive to participate. Even HN feels like that. I've lost count of the number of replies I've typed out, only to delete without posting. I just think there's no point. It's not fun anymore.
I'll probably give up HN soon. It's the last of anything resembling social media that I use. I strongly dislike the inability to completely delete an account and past posts. It's not like I post controversial stuff, but I've grown uncomfortable about leaving any trace online.
Warsaw on a warm summer evening. The sun is setting and there is a beautiful sky above the equally beautiful city. You relax into you sleeper cabin, and gaze out of the window waiting for the train to depart. 'Such a friendly city. Beautiful country.' you think to yourself. The train pulls out of the station. You watch the countryside pass as the night turns dark. You go to sleep.
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You wake up at Gare du Nord. At least you think it's Gare du Nord. This can't be Paris, surely?! You think to yourself. You quickly leave the train to try and find out what horrendous 3rd world shithole your wrong train has taken you to... You immediately step in dog shit. You try to hop on one foot and clean it off. An tour group barge past you and knocks you over. A commuter flicks his cigarette toward the floor, hitting you in the face. He doesn't see you. Or maybe he just doesn't care. You can't tell. 'I need to get back to civilisation' you think to yourself as you get up and dust yourself off. You go to grab you suitcase. It's not there. It's in the hand of a Romanian running off down the platform. Welcome to Paris.
I thought the punch line would be that he'd wake up parked on a siding in a Warsaw suburb 8 hours later. If Amtrak was in charge that's definitely what would have happened.
I don't know, I just arrived in Paris night and immediately after stepping out of Garre Du Nord, I was walloped with an overwhelming scent of urine. Not that far off.
How did this submission make it to the #10 slot, after being posted 38 minutes ago, and with a handful of comments?
This is a very boring update about some product specs. I cannot see how it could be interesting enough on it's on to merit such a rapid response. It's not even remotely interesting on its own (it's essentially a boring advert).
I noticed the same happened with a Purism advert yesterday.
I'm a natural cynic, so perhaps I'm fooling myself into seeing what I want to see, but is this an example of shilling? Does HN have a history of promoting adverts masquerading as content (Reddit style)?