Hacker News - It's not for hackers and it's hardly news.

[quaawaa]

Back when 3rd-party apps were banned from Reddit, a lot of disgruntled Redditors went to Hacker News and brought their shitty far-left politics with them. That thread is the result.

No, HN has been orange reddit for over a decade.

 

[Markass the Worst]

The Hacker News post for the WIRED article about the DOGE engineers being doxxed is of course full of hundreds defending the journalist, and any trying to advocate for DOGE are downvoted or flagged

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42910910

It's infuriating when these are the same people who say Kiwi Farms is bad for doxing. Double standards because they wouldn't have any otherwise.

 

[UERISIMILITUDO]

I'm going to experiment with directly quoting them rather than taking screenshots. So, this reminds me of an older discussion:
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42615538 (archive)

The gist is Facebook used a guy's own image in an advertisement targeted at him, and these stupid corporate cocksuckers excuse that kind of thing because he totally agreed to it somehow.

Some people rightfully see this for the evil shit it is:

Meta AI asks permission to do this, but note that in some U.S. states personal publicity rights end upon death. Isn't it hilariously Wallacian that this technology can be used to make targeted ads featuring the viewers deceased loved ones?

Jesus Christ the victim blaming in this thread is insane. This is why deepfake laws are needed. Sure OP used Meta AI, and consented, but if I did that I'd probably be consenting to using the picture _for that one session_, where I'm in control. Definitely not for this, they shouldn't be able to put this in their ToS.

So, I had a terrific loss of the love of my life. I don't know how, but am seeing ads that literally resemble her likeness and it's happened more then once. Not look alike but her. Once I found out photobucket was training its AI on users photos, I removed them all and uploaded them to Google photos and now on youtube I'll see an add for a college and there she is dressed up graduation dress and colors of the college (a local) college.its like these evil companies are rubbing it in my face I'm thinking of getting a flip phone my heart is broken and continues to be everytime she pops up in an ad even though I know it's impossible to be her, the data analytics companies know of us through whatever our unique IDs are, picture scans or whatever the case and now they are breaking my heart daily and it's been over a year and I'm still mourning barely making it thru my days only to have her keep popping up how evil

Others argue that, like, an advertisement from Facebook on something it owns isn't even an advertisement, guys:

That's... not an ad? User used Meta AI to touch up a selfie, now Meta AI is generating more selfies for you.

I can understand the annoyance from cross-linking apps in the same way it's annoying to get the Threads popup in your feed, but really, this is utter clickbait.

> It's not mundane. The screenshots show Instagram displaying an ad for Meta AI.
Well, there it is again: what seems to make it objectionable is that it fits a certain definition, rather than it exhibiting some intrinsically objectionable features. (Note I’m not criticizing this; I just find it interesting.)

Since I don’t personally see this as an ad, I might describe it as “The screenshots show an example of output that the user can generate with Meta AI. The example shown isn’t emotionally enagaging, and it resembles placeholder content.”

What would make this stand out for me is if Meta owned a tooth whitening business, and then used this placement to show a version of myself with a whiter smile. Or any of the other dystopian examples in this thread. But the one that actually occurred just doesn’t register for me as a breach of trust.

> These are not ads, rather something that is generated natively by the platform, not leading anywhere else but the platform that the user is already on.

Is this post Advertising a product? Yes, it is advertising a MetaAI product. Just because it's not an external ad, doesn't mean it's not an ad. Hulu shows me adds for other Hulu shows. This is an ad despite me not leaving that streaming site.

What is an advertisement to you?

Now, I never bothered to see what slackfan posted, but nevertheless found this interesting:

You’ve posted enough info here on HN for anyone to dox you (I won’t). Just thought it was relevant to your comment.

 

[Non-breath oblige]

Cloudflare is blocking Pale Moon and other non-mainstream browsers (archive)

Hello. Cloudflare's Browser Intergrity Check/Verification/Challenge feature used by many websites, is denying access to users of non-mainstream browsers like Pale Moon. Users reports began on January 31: https://forum.palemoon.org/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=32045 This situation occurs at least once a year, and there is no easy way to contact Cloudflare. Their "Submit feedback" tool yields no results. A Cloudflare Community topic was flagged as "spam" by members of that community and was promptly locked with no real solution, and no official response from Cloudflare: https://community.cloudflare.com/t/access-denied-to-pale-moo... Partial list of other browsers that are being denied access: Falkon, SeaMonkey, IceCat, Basilisk. Hacker News 2022 post about the same issue, which brought attention and had Cloudflare quickly patching the issue: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=31317886 A Cloudflare product manager declared back then: "...we do not want to be in the business of saying one browser is more legitimate than another." As of now, there is no official response from Cloudflare. Internet access is still denied by their tool.

 

[UERISIMILITUDO]

If anyone questions that Hacker News is nothing more than orange Reddit, just look at this long discussion about the price of eggs lately:
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42950929 (archive)

That's so hacker, guys. It's crazy how the economy went to shit the millisecond Biden was no longer president. Whatever happened to the vibecession?

As is the norm for this kind of shit, the conversation has some people pointing out that prices aren't that high in some areas, and that food can be grown in a decentralized fashion, while other people go "nuh uh" and tell them why it doesn't work. Here's my favourite comment:

Totally agree with this. After selling my last company (iCracked W12) I had been playing around with the idea of how to build the world's largest decentralized food production network - think millions of people leveraging their backyards to produce, share, and sell protein and vegetables. I've always wanted to build a company that blends smart home / AI technology with backyard agriculture and we decided to start with chickens. I have been raising chickens for 15 years and automating my coops with Arduino's, automatic doors, cameras for computer vision, etc.

We spent 2 years building and designing a AI / smart coop and it's been a fascinating company to be able to build. We've trained our computer vision model on around 25 million videos and have gotten extremely good at doing specific predator detection, egg alerts, remote health monitoring, specific chickens in a coop and behaviors etc. We're at the point now where we can say, "Hey AJ, there's 2 raccoons outside your coop, the automatic door is shut, all 6 chickens are safe, and you have 10 eggs that can be collected". Super fun project and would love y'alls feedback. If you're interested in seeing what we're doing we're at www.TheSmartCoop.com

I want to make the world's largest decentralized food production network that I still happen to control personally.

 

[Cybertonia]

Here's my favourite comment:

$100 says this is a jeet. Leave it to the fuckin' jeets on HN to shill for their own stupid-ass shit in Every. Single. Thread.

 

[Margo Martindale]

I'm not sure how comments get flagged, but this one getting flagged was bs. Are only certain users able to flag votes, or are there jannies that do it?

 

[Sportsball]

I'm not sure how comments get flagged, but this one getting flagged was bs. Are only certain users able to flag votes, or are there jannies that do it?

Anyone can flag if they have enough karma (I think it's 500 but don't quote me on that). It takes several users to successfully flag a post. Users can also "vouch" a flagged post, but if different people flag it again it will stay flagged.

The head moderator, Dang, also threatens to take away flagging privileges if it gets "abused" -- but in observation that's only applied to right-wing abusers not SJW liberal abusers.

 

[Redeemer]

No, HN has been orange reddit for over a decade.

There was definitely a sea change around when people started bailing from Reddit. My recollection of HN c.a. 2018 was that they had their own little groupthink that was unique to that community. Now, it feels like they are an admixture of old HN groupthink and Reddit groupthink.

I used to flame out on HN but I kept coming back because they seemed to have an actually good selection filter for people with technical chops. But now it feels like every comment section I click on someone is just egregiously factually wrong about technical stuff and getting upvoted straight to the top.

 

[Kola]

There was definitely a sea change around when people started bailing from Reddit. My recollection of HN c.a. 2018 was that they had their own little groupthink that was unique to that community. Now, it feels like they are an admixture of old HN groupthink and Reddit groupthink.

I used to flame out on HN but I kept coming back because they seemed to have an actually good selection filter for people with technical chops. But now it feels like every comment section I click on someone is just egregiously factually wrong about technical stuff and getting upvoted straight to the top.

This is such an old type of comment that it's literally in the rules:

Please don't post comments saying that HN is turning into Reddit. It's a semi-noob illusion, as old as the hills.

 

[Vecr]

This is such an old type of comment that it's literally in the rules:

It did turn into Reddit though. At least on some threads.

 

[RGBCube]

It did turn into Reddit though. At least on some threads.

"Some" is doing a lot of heavy lifting here. There just is every kind of person in the site, and the more vocal ones are present in controversial threads. I'm okay with how dang has been moderating the site, he doesn't really pander to any side.

The site delivers what you'd expect from a business forum filled with wannabe hackers. Nothing more, nothing less. Sometimes you do see gems, obviously. But that's the exception and not the rule. It's definitely not as pozzed as Reddit despite what people would like to claim to further enthrob their hate boner for both sites.

 

[UERISIMILITUDO]

wannabe hackers

I'd rather call them wannabe business overlords. They can't separate their idea of hackerdom from fucking startups. If I have to hear about how hungry and scrappy businesses totally beat incumbents one more time.

 

[Kola]

There's an article about the Shawnee tribe of native americans in Civ VII: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43153662

And in the comments, there's a funny exchange where a guy calls them outright thieves:


Then there's a generic leftard reply that's already downvoted hard (I adjusted the text color because it's greyed out, making it hard to read). HN chuds are having none of that, and are not buying the "sins of the father" narrative. They are staunch believers in self-made destiny and meritocracy (and I agree, indians have the same freedom to not be thieves as anybody else).

 

[Combustion Engine]

There's an article about the Shawnee tribe of native americans in Civ VII: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43153662

As the beneficiary of settler colonialism, you don't really have a leg to stand on criticizing the ethics of genocide survivors. They operate in a landscape that is existentially hostile to them, and they do so from an immeasurable disadvantage.

That description sure reminds me of a certain Old World tribe.. but when somebody drops a grenade like that you just can't stop yourself from looking at their posting history. It's unfortunate some of their spicier opinions are not particularly well-received by the average HN folx, and he's made dang go "Yikes!" on them before, but I made a small curated selection of the first few pages:

A discussion in a submission about how half the world's grain is not destined for human consumption turns into a call to action to halve human population.. a suggestion is made to educate women in developing countries to make that happen. (link)

Rexpop doesn't seem to appreciate the H-1B programs "hiring x100 Asian immigrants", displacing Black and Latino folx, that they accuse the other poster of intently purchasing a gun to kill. They might not be far off when saying "countless H1-B holders and they have all, as a rule, been egregiously anti workers-rights, elitist, chauvinistic, misogynistic, and racist", but probably not for the reasons they believe. (link)

They'd also probably fit well with the /r/fuckcars crowd. (link)

9/11? Mourned to death, inflated by political PR mercenaries. (link) Holocaust? No sensible adult could refer to any reference to the holocaust as "whining". (link)


Finally, pour one out for social justice, we need it more than ever in our dire times. (link)

 

[Spungus]

What's more confusing than someone who writes in third person? Someone who speaks in third person via made up pronouns!

 

[teriyakiburns]

What's more confusing than someone who writes in third person? Someone who speaks in third person via made up pronouns!

"Look how special I am! Pay attention to me!"

 

[Hồ Chí Minh]

What's more confusing than someone who writes in third person? Someone who speaks in third person via made up pronouns!

Google Translate is helpful:

 

[Kola]

I was annoyed by this blatant attention seeking so I looked at the posting history of this guy. He only went bonkers late last year. Years before he did, he doxxed himself, posted his full CV, so here are the receipts.


Full name: J.C. Holder
Aliases: thirdtruck, Jaycie Holder, Jaycie Habbit
Age: In his 30s

Photo:

Sources:
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14257511 [A]


Resume: https://jcholder.com/resume/resume_holder_jc.pdf (attached)
Password: resume

Website: https://jcholder.com [A] (doesn't write like an obnoxious faggot there, but no new posts since 2021)
Mastodon: https://toot.thoughtworks.com/@jcholder [A] (stopped posting in 2023)
Homo Mastodon: https://tech.lgbt/@jaycie [A] [A-with_replies] (He's his full blown "xe xir" self here, total faggotry on display, keeps posting often)




Twitter: https://x.com/thirdtruck [A] (He's a "they/them" furry here, no posts since 2020)


Itch: https://thirdtruck.itch.io (he peddles his furry dating sim there)
His bio at what could be his employer's website: https://thoughtworksarts.io/bio/jc-holder [A] (he's a "they/them" here)
Github: https://github.com/jcholder-thoughtworks (nothing of note)
2nd Github: https://github.com/thirdtruck (nothing of note except his alias: Jaycie Habbit)
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jcholder2 (won't archive because it's behind a login wall for Archive.is bot)

He looks like a run of the mill web developer. If I had to guess, he started balding in his twenties, was never really attractive to begin with, never had a girlfriend, was a stereotypical shy nerd, and just before his 30th birthday went through some sort of a crisis, probably realizing he's never going to have a wife or normal family life. Got groomed by fags on Mastodon or some other website, and since he was already a furfag, he went all in.

This is my first time doing this sort of thing so let me know if I missed anything or should have done differently.

 

[Coolio55]

Itch: https://thirdtruck.itch.io (he peddles his furry dating sim there)

Not a dating sim BTW, one of the progenitors of the budding "get gaslit by an online hugbox into trooning out" sim genre.

E: Fuck. Someone should make a chuddy version of that (you get groomed eith crime statistics and cringe compilations) and declare it "a chilling depiction of the online facist network" and win all the indie game awards.