Hacker Newsnew | past | comments | ask | show | jobs | submitlogin

> That's not always possible.

In most cases it is. And the article suggested preemptive approach, which implies lying in all cases while being in persona.

> In what case?

In situations described in the discussed article: "If you defiantly refuse to say who you are, it can make people angry that you’re upsetting social reciprocity". I.e. to lie just to avoid awkward social interactions instead of explicitly or implicitly refuse. People being too agreeable in their social interactions so that they would rather lie than cause discomfort. This kind of casual lying.

> Everything is a signaling issue. Your post, for example, signals you as a person who has not-very-nuanced opinions about nuanced topics

Or perhaps you just ignore the context of the article to strawman my position.

> What issues are you considering minor?

Where the cost of not telling a lie is just some social cost unrelated to personal security, employment or other similarly important needs.



> In most cases it is.

If you protect your anonymity in 999,999 cases out of 1,000,000, your anonymity is blown. "Most cases" isn't enough.

> And the article suggested preemptive approach, which implies lying in all cases while being in persona.

Yes. Because lying ex-post-facto after people have already started trying to figure out who you are doesn't work.

> In situations described in the discussed article: "If you defiantly refuse to say who you are, it can make people angry that you’re upsetting social reciprocity". I.e. to lie just to avoid awkward social interactions instead of explicitly or implicitly refuse. People being too agreeable in their social interactions so that they would rather lie than cause discomfort. This kind of casual lying.

The article doesn't say anything about it being "to avoid awkward social interactions". On the contrary, the reason given for doing so is as a further protection of one's anonymity.

And to be clear, there are many cases where any reasonable person would agree it's ethical to lie to protect one's anonymity, some of which I've described in my previous post.




Guidelines | FAQ | Lists | API | Security | Legal | Apply to YC | Contact

Search: