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Comment by intopieces | Hacker News Reader

Usernames on Reddit do not require even an email address. For that reason, I find it hard to muster up even a modicum of concern for the sanctity of 'authorship' and 'attribution' for individual users. For all I know, every comment on Reddit but my own are generated by a very clever computer.

That congress sees fit to investigate Reddit comments and news websites find credibility in re-posting them are separate issues that absolutely deserve discussion. But the editing of "Fuck [username]" posts...

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Many people post on Reddit under their real identity. Now it is madness to do so, as a malicious Reddit employee can frame you as having said anything.

This has always been the case. It has always been madness to post on user forums under your real identity. In the 'viral era' -- the age of mobile broadband, the age where any post you make or photo you send can get the attention of millions and ruin your career before your plane lands [0] -- it's pure madness to expose yourself like this.

[0]http://www.nytimes.com/2015/02/15/magazine/how-one-stupid-tw...

Reading that is both sad and scary at the same time. White Christmas (of Black Mirror) certainly doesn't look so science fiction anymore.

And any user can claim to not have said something, citing this as evidence.

I find it odd that people who build websites for a living didn't understand that... Like.. They control the data... They have complete access to the database.. Do you NOT think they could edit comments without updating the edited at timestamp?

Of course it can be done. This is about trust in the people running Reddit. In any operation, people can lie, cheat, and steal. You win the trust of customers and users by proving that you don't.

That anyone trusted the people running reddit -- a free platform that sells users' attention and therefore relies on manipulating them for their business model -- is the real cause for concern in this story.

"If a website is free, you're the product, not the customer."

>as a malicious Reddit employee can frame you as having said anything

So that means I can go back to posting random 1960s Spiderman memes everywhere? Awesome!

> Many people post on Reddit under their real identity.

Among them, two Presidents of the United States, several ministers / PMs / MEPs, a long list of Hollywood stars... what if a rogue employee impersonates or alters POTUS statements?

Obama has a Reddit account, /u/PresidentObama. Which other President of the United States has one?

do you think the same about HN? your email isn't even asked for here.

Yes. Authorship, "karma," etc do not concern me. Discussion that makes me think, that challenges my preconceptions, that enriches my understanding of technology or that links me to new skills to learn -- those concern me.

Which is why I can't really feel outraged that a nonsense comment was changed into another nonsense comment. Nothing of value was lost.

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