On HN, we start from the benefit of the doubt. A person can be both a programmer and a judge. pqdbr's comment was coherent and plausible. The null hypothesis is therefore that pqdbr is making a valuable contribution.
It's fine and interesting to look through someone's comment history for background. It can also be ok to ask questions based on that, but this is always delicate and must be done respectfully. But to dig around for a bit, leap to a sinister conclusion, and fling it at them with a couple insults for good measure is a serious violation of civility on this site.
HN members with outlier backgrounds (and 'judge' certainly is one) are some of the most valuable contributors we have; doubly so—if not more—when they speak computing too. Imagine what it would feel like to share from one's expertise in the most on-topic way possible, only to be randomly slapped in the face and have your character impugned. You owe pqdbr a lot more of an apology than "Cool! Always happy to be wrong when evidence supports it." (Edit: which, now that I think of it, reads more like a humblebrag than making amends.)
Totally respect moving it as it is a distraction at this point.
That said, my comment wasn't particularly harsh and I think it's reasonable to be suspect of such lofty claims, especially with basically no proof to be found anywhere in a cursory search. One commenter did some serious research to find Portuguese language proof and that is why this was even an issue.
Had the commenter been full of BS, which is the overwhelming majority in these cases, nobody would have made much of a fuss about it.
I also expressed my gratitude for pointing out the errant conclusion to the other poster who did research, so I have no problem admitting a false conclusion. Being wrong with a lot of support (upvotes) seems to be my primary sin here.
You're misinterpreting the upvotes on a comment like that. They simply mean what GIFs of popcorn mean.
Outrage and drama drive more upvotes than intellectual curiosity does. That's why upvotes, though vital, are not the final arbiter here. HN is a constitutional democracy, and what you did was unconstitutional. Please don't do it again.
You are committing the same folly you accuse him of. It would be fine to simply point out his use of it, but following that up with: "I'm surprised you got as many credulous responses as you did." You are basically doing the same thing. Prime that he is not an expert, then state that he should not be getting credulous responses. The implication of course being that his not being an expert means that his argument does not deserve credible thought and response.
Also, there's always a fine line with appeal to authority with regards to experts, which you would hope a judge would be in the field of law. For instance, is it folly to point to consensus in science? That is, after all, nothing but an authority.
That just doesn't sound reasonable. University students, to me should be a full-time focus, also very often have one or multiple part-time jobs or even a full-time job while attending classes and doing their school work. Surely being a judge doesn't take 100% of someone's time, and this is also a topic likely close to the commenter. Also, did you look at the date of his tourism website post anyhow?
Speaking only for myself, obviously, I don't find the argument itself to be particularly interesting, but I do find it interesting to find a Brazilian judge posting it on HN, just because that's really unexpected to me. If it's all fake, then the comment ceases to be interesting at all.
My point is that you have nothing to gain by calling into question the title. You give people the benefit of the doubt because that's the way to maintain civil discourse.
There's a large number of HN posters who just come in and turn everything into an anti-US screed. This guy took something unforgivable in Brazil and turned it into a very questionable commentary about the NSA and pretty much blaming the US for all the world's woes.
I believe there is a lot of evidence of autocratic regimes like Russia and China paying people to promote anti-US views. Who knows if this guy is one of them or what Stalin called a "useful idiot" but its amusing to see obvious trolling in action. Did he think no one would go through his posting history?
On HN, we start from the benefit of the doubt. A person can be both a programmer and a judge. pqdbr's comment was coherent and plausible. The null hypothesis is therefore that pqdbr is making a valuable contribution.
It's fine and interesting to look through someone's comment history for background. It can also be ok to ask questions based on that, but this is always delicate and must be done respectfully. But to dig around for a bit, leap to a sinister conclusion, and fling it at them with a couple insults for good measure is a serious violation of civility on this site.
HN members with outlier backgrounds (and 'judge' certainly is one) are some of the most valuable contributors we have; doubly so—if not more—when they speak computing too. Imagine what it would feel like to share from one's expertise in the most on-topic way possible, only to be randomly slapped in the face and have your character impugned. You owe pqdbr a lot more of an apology than "Cool! Always happy to be wrong when evidence supports it." (Edit: which, now that I think of it, reads more like a humblebrag than making amends.)
We detached this subthread from https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10751003 and marked it off-topic.