Hacker News Reader

Comment by k__ | Hacker News Reader

Is there already a law for this?

I would love this to be called "Moomin's Law"

I personally call it Pwnage Culture. Karma-based sites love it when a user debunks an article or another user's comment.

You get extra points if you start your reply with a cold remark such as "No." "Wrong." "False." And then you put some random citations to Pubmed or Wikipedia at the bottom of your comment.

"You get extra points if you start your reply with a cold remark such as "No." "Wrong." "False."

Exactly, I automatically downvote comments like that.

That'll teach them! It's fortunate that nerds are psychic.

It's ok, you can downvote this, I know it'll make you feel better about yourself.

Yes, it makes me feel better, that's the only reason I do it.

No. This is wrong. Extra point conversion is never a sure thing.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conversion_(gridiron_football)

I've seen a version on Reddit:

    Law of Reddit XCVII:
    You can make a redditor believe anything, no matter how outlandish, so  long as you preface it with "Contrary to what you hear in the MSM...."

But I guess that's a tad more specific than generic second opinion bias, which is what we see here

Reply on news.ycombinator.com