Ask YC: Innocuous news? | Hacker News Reader

Ask YC: Innocuous news?

70 pointsandr45 comments

Did HN get hacked? Screenshot here: http://dl.getdropbox.com/u/10731/Snapshot%202009-04-23%2016-45-32.png

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No, I just changed the name for a bit.

http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=575487

Perhaps I could have that as an entry possible in my settings. With sufficient karma you get to rename the site.

submit that here: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=363

Done.

http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=576066

Can you do me a favor and change the word "News" to "Important Work Site".

Why stop there?

How about "User Acceptance Testing - Phase III Results". I won't have to alt-tab so much.

Hell, maybe pg can make the whole site look like an IDE.

c.f. http://spreadtweets.elliottkember.com/

Added title rename to my GM script: http://userscripts.org/scripts/show/25039

Given all the complaints about the increasing popularity of the site, I was more expecting "Boring News, Nothing Funny Here, Go Back to Tech Crunch" or something.

Could we have it back again? I quite like it. Appeals to my somewhat odd taste.

Don't worry, it will only last for the current server process. I just changed the name in the repl.

Maybe higher karma users could change the title dynamically like they can change the top bar color?

Why not call it Make Something People Want News. It might focus the mind of the posters and reduce off-topic posts. Also "Innocuous News" has the feel of an inside joke; it might lead to a recurring Ask-HN thread about the name.

I rather liked the strange looks I got from reading Hacker News, but at least I learned a new word today

Innocuous - 1. not harmful or injurious; harmless: an innocuous home remedy. 2. not likely to irritate or offend; inoffensive; an innocuous remark. 3. not interesting, stimulating, or significant; pallid; insipid: an innocuous novel.

The word sounds much more interesting than what it actually means though. I like it :)

You really hadn't heard it before today?

Not everyone here is a native English speaker.

I read a lot, but I have a habit of glossing over words for which I have a vague sense, but not a precise definition.

For a while, whenever I'd read something, I'd just quickly jot down any word for which I couldn't come up with a good definition. Later, I'd look them up.

It works, and it's saved me some embarrassment. Schadenfreude didn't mean what I thought it meant.

What did you think it meant? (Just curious - I am a native German speaker.)

Bittersweet joy, rather than joy in someone else's misfortune.

Plausible. I guess the word could have taken that meaning.

I find that an amazing thing about language, that you often don't need a precise definition, because the meaning is clear from the context. Perhaps 'innocuous' isn't the best example, as 'innocent' is well known and pretty close, but it also works for words that you lack any 'hint' for.

I looked up innocuous when I saw the title change, but didn't really learn anything new.

Mostly harmless. Or '42'. Just plain '42'.

(if you need to ask, you can't afford it ;-)

Mostly Harmless News. Definitely what it should be. DON'T PANIC!

Deep Thought

Innocuous News; Even creepier than Hacker news : )

agree theres some unusually shady about something claiming to be innocuous

In our office you get funny looks if you don't read Hacker News.

I dream of such places, thanks for letting my know that, unlike unicorns, they exist.

There's no reason for them not to exist, you just may not have found one yet.

Just like magnetic monopoles...

And if you cannot find one, you should found one.

That requires a lot of energy. (For both cases.)

When I run into ignorance about the hacker/cracker distinction and don't feel like going into the whole schpiel, I find that the phrase "relax; I work for the good guys" is sufficient to calm people down.

I suggest "l33t |-|@xx0r n3\/\/5"

No. See http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=575487

I hope it's not permanent.

Why not encode "Hacker" using HTML entities so content blockers don't catch it?

It was more of an issue for people looking over people's shoulders.

I got a much better idea - why not just spell it hazer?

Wonderful! Saves the creepy looks from those who keep an eye on the office... now just bewildered looks.

Actually, i like it as Hacker News. I'm just so used to say it as "Hacker News" to explain things to my team. Can't imagine having to pronounce "Innocuous News".

I like the name "hacker" why change it for all of us, the one who habe problems with it use a userscript

I like Innocuous, but you could always give "hacker" a weird web 2.0 spelling to solve the problem.

That would be a step in the wrong direction, in my opinion. Pseudo-leetspeek hacker news? It's even sketchier.

Allow us to customize the title, just like we can customize the title bar background.

awesome

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