[ffsm8]

I admittedly did not, initially.

I did now and am even more certain it's made up now.

I'm not sure how anyone can honestly think this is a person talking about their family. This is like a textbook made believe story people have been doing since Reddit got popular in early 2010s.

For this story to be real, you'll have to add a fourth and fifth circle to the diagram with a family member being close enough to the person suffering from the illness to be confided in and being so karma hungry to utilize their personal story which is likely shameful to them for going viral on Reddit.

[bonoboTP]

Another circle for the Venn diagram is that the schizophrenic sister's name happens to be Carol, the same as the name in the ad shown on the fridge.

Obviously made up.

[Retr0id]

And why did it have to be a fridge? The same ad is being displayed all over the place, from phone screens to billboards.

[ffsm8]

> My schizophrenic sister hospitalised herself because she throught [...] someone was attempting to communciate with her through her fridge.[...]

[Retr0id]

Right, the exact same story as was outlined in a reddit comment weeks prior. Seeing the ad on a phone would be far more plausible.

[ffsm8]

Ah, I misunderstood your question. Yes.

[SideburnsOfDoom]

> the schizophrenic sister's name happens to be Carol ... Obviously made up.

Why? because no-ones' sister is ever called "Carol" ? Or because people of that name don't get schizophrenia?

I consider myself sane, but if I saw a billboard addressing me by name, I would do a double-take at least. I can easily understand how it would have an impact and look like a schizophrenic symptom.

The TV show advert with that text actually does exist, I've seen it.

Given that, what are the odds that some day a) it is seen, b) by someone called Carol, c) who is susceptible to being affected by it. I would say substantial.

We don't know the truth of this at all.

[wiseowise]

Somehow it all happened just in time to coincide with the release of this big show: Samsung rolling out ads(a big story in its own), Pluberis (or whatever the name of the show) from the creator of the Breaking Bad on Apple TV, schizophrenic sister that is named Carol.

Totally NOT made up.

Not related at all, but I have this very exciting business idea – you can make billions, can you contact me via email in my bio? Not a scam, 100%.

[SideburnsOfDoom]

> schizophrenic sister that is named Carol.

Name matches will happen regardless of the name chosen for a fictional person. "named Carol" specifically vs other names is an irrelevance. You put too much on it.

> Totally NOT made up.

Once more for the hard of reading, I refer you to what I said earlier, "We don't know the truth of this at all."

> but I have this very exciting business idea – you can make billions,

It looks to me like you want to rant people you have invented, who hold positions that I do not. I'm sorry that you can't parse nuance, but I think I'll keep the sceptical lack of faith in your position that I used earlier.

[wiseowise]

> Once more for the hard of reading, I refer you to what I said earlier, "We don't know the truth of this at all."

I’m still awaiting your email, good luck!

[SideburnsOfDoom]

> I’m still awaiting your email,

Then you failed to read and understand what I wrote at all. And so there is no point in further written conversation. Good day.

[saltcured]

Should we call this the Birthname Paradox? 6 Degrees of Carol?

[SideburnsOfDoom]

Assuming that it's "so unlikely because Carol" seems to be the mistake.

No matter what name is picked for a fictional protagonist, some people will match it. If it's a real name, then people have it, pretty much by definition.

But, this doesn't really reflect one way or the other on this story being true or not. The mistake is in thinking that it does.

[mikkupikku]

Carol is a very uncommon name, it was last popular in the 40s and 50s so almost every Carol you find today will be in an old folk's home. The odds of two truly independent instances of somebody named Carol appearing in this manner of circumstance is extremely small.

Edit: https://www.babynameatlas.com/name/carol

Also, it came from reddit therefore it is fake. Reddit is a dumpster fire, if we're being generous it's a website for playing around with creative writing exercises. The not so generous interpretation is that reddit users are deranged internet point addicts who habitually lie to get their fix.

[SideburnsOfDoom]

> it came from reddit therefore it is fake

This level of simple assurance is for simpletons. You and I don't know the truth of it and can't be sure based on "it's from reddit". I'm sorry that not being sure is hard for you.

> The odds of two truly independent instances of somebody named Carol appearing in this manner of circumstance

What on earth are you talking about? There there are not "two people named Carol appearing in this manner." The first is the protagonist of a sci-fi show. You know, a fictional person. There is 1 - count them, one, supposed victim appearing in this manner. Which is possible regardless of the name chosen for the show and ad.

[mikkupikku]

> "This level of simple assurance is for simpletons. You and I don't know the truth of it and can't be sure based on "it's from reddit". I'm sorry that not being sure is hard for you."

I respectfully disagree with your dismissal. Reasonable heuristics are necessary to get through life without getting lost in hours of deep dives into any random shit you hear. Anyway, the mere fact that the fridges have ads of any sort at all is reason enough to never buy one, I don't need to also believe some redditor's karma seeking tall tale.

[SideburnsOfDoom]

> Reasonable heuristics are necessary to get through life without getting lost in hours of deep dives into any random shit you hear.

And I respectfully disagree with that.

Firstly, I have my own opinions on reddit and I don't find your simplistic ones persuasive. It's not monolithic.

But more importantly, you make a leap from "We don't know the truth of it and can't be sure" to "getting lost in hours of deep dives" (to establish certainty) which IMHO just does not follow.

You can decide that you don't know, that you do not need to have an authoritative opinion on the topic, and leave it at that. There are a lots of things that you and I don't have certainty on, and never will. Most of them are not important to us.

Deep dives might or might not be worth it, but you present choosing a side as the only alternative and it is not.

Again, I'm sorry that not being sure is hard for you. But it's a useful thing to do. It's a useful heuristic to me, better than false certainty.

> I don't need to also believe some redditor's karma seeking tall tale.

I don't think I ever said that I believe it as certainty. But if the only options that you understand are binary, then not picking one as a certainty seems to be misread as picking the other one. Which it is not.

The amount of "black or white", all or nothing, no-nuance, no doubt, no open mind, "if you say you're not convinced of x, then you must be trying to convince everyone of not-x" thinking here is frankly pathological.

FYI, I find the arguments that have come up that "Ads on Samsung fridges don't look like that" more substantive than "no one has that name" or "reddit always lies". Those last are opinions masquerading as information.

[da_grift_shift]

It's layers of fake!

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46173339

(And yes: the karma farmers are either deranged addicts or warming up accounts for onward sale.)

[saltcured]

There is a pattern of Asian immigrants to the US adopting such "old-fashioned" names for themselves or their kids.

I'm Gen-X, born and raised in California. I have a coworker whose Taiwanese American wife is Carol. And I've seen my fair share of people in my age cohort or their offspring with names like Ann, Karen, Katherine/Catherin, Susan, Mary, Lillian, etc.

Yes, these were the names of my grandparents' generation, but they didn't go away in my experience. They just branched out from their original userbase.

[LanceH]

This brings back some memories :)

I asked some coworkers about this and they had all adopted names that sounded like their Chinese names. Except Xiaofong who didn't have anything to match. It was mid 90's so we gifted him Ronaldo (Brazilian version, best and full sized Ronaldo) and he loved it.

[SideburnsOfDoom]

These names are sometimes called "WASPonym" and they're common in many places.

For e.g. the person that you know as Nelson Mandela was at birth named "Rolihlahla" by his parents. Having a second, English name is less common now.

[eurleif]

The name Caroline remains popular, and it can be shortened to Carol: https://www.babynameatlas.com/name/caroline

[_zagj]

> Also, it came from reddit therefore it is fake. Reddit is a dumpster fire, if we're being generous it's a website for playing around with creative writing exercises. The not so generous interpretation is that reddit users are deranged internet point addicts who habitually lie to get their fix.

It's much worse than that. Now it's LLM bots regurgitating those creative writing exercises. Worse still, there's nothing stopping these bots from posting on subreddits where real people go to get actual help, for example, tech support or medical advice (from ostensibly vetted experts), from people kind enough to use their spare time to help others--people who will leave when they realize the "people" asking questions are mostly bots.

[im3w1l]

To go full schizo conspiracy theory: It may also not be a coincidence. There may be someone that dislikes that one Carol, knows she has schizophrenia and a smart fridge. They design this ad, or perhaps just plant the idea of it at the company they are working for with the intention of harming her.

If there really was a Carol I think police should look into this theory just to rule it out.

[SideburnsOfDoom]

Nope, for the simple and trivial to check reason that it's not just an ad, or even just a whole ad campaign. It's the name of a protagonist of a drama, that the ad promotes, using a phrase that is said to that fictional character.

I'm sure you can find the character name "Carol" on this page: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pluribus_(TV_series) or similar phrases said to them in the trailer, which you can find if you want to.

[nsoqm]

It’s anti-tech rhetoric so it works well here in HN. That’s the entire purpose of it.

Not to say ads on fridges aren’t stupid. But they are stupid enough by themselves; they don’t have to make up stories about them.

[hn_throwaway_99]

Honestly some of the posts defending "it could be true!!" when nearly any rational reading of it would deem it "fake beyond a reasonable doubt" are just tiresome at this point.

Like you say, it's easy to have a rational discussion that these adverts are dumb and annoying, and purporting this fan fiction as truth just weakens the case.