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Comment by tptacek | Hacker News Reader

People had apparently been complaining for awhile (search for the bug thread on this); for instance: http://permalink.gmane.org/gmane.comp.web.chromium.bugs/1815...

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People will complain about anything. I, for example, am going to complain about this slight decline in my browser humor.

Try NetPositive: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NetPositive#Error_messages_in_...

on unreasonable grounds...

>> Government surveillance is nothing to joke about

i didn't consider it a joke, and i'll let the next one speak for itself:

>> it isn't performed by secret agents, but via lawyers and engineers

Offended by use of via.

Orwell says that using Latin is evil.

Now that makes sense.

If government surveillance isn't performed by secret agents, then clearly the secret agents joke has nothing to do with government surveillance.

The quote is "surveillance by secret agents".

Given that "secret agent employed by the gov't" is by far the most common usage of "secret agent", anyone fluent in English would parse the original warning as "government surveillance performed by secret agents". That isn't to say that I agree with the complaint, but your comment makes no sense.

Sure, it was just meant to be a joke.

-_- my bad. I guess the fact that I took it seriously is testament to the fact that that kind of statement (said in all seriousness) is pretty common these days.

It was a disruption tactic: https://firstlook.org/theintercept/2014/02/24/jtrig-manipula...

Some of the comments after that article are rather bizarre. Sometimes I forget just how good the comment quality is on HN, even though it can get pretty bad.

As one of the complainers (and the person who filed the bug you linked to), I'm happy to see Google make some progress here. I'm even happier to see that they hired Adrienne Felt, who is excellent, and are letting her improve the usability of Chrome's warnings.

What are your feelings about the "Aw, Snap!" error message?

So, uh, your complaint sucks. First, although it may have been interpreted jokingly by some, the text absolutely had a serious meaning behind it. Now that meaning is gone. Second, your suggestion of a link to the tor project is the real joke. Third, if you file a bug complaining about wording without suggesting a precise and usable alternative, you suck.

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