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Comment by warkid | Hacker News Reader

> If there's anyone worse than Adria in this story, it's both Hank's and Adria's former employers.

Worse? One (presumably) could've had a ruined business due to DDoS which could've led to much more layoffs than just one-I'm-very-sorry-for Adria. Hanks' employer could've had much more troubles than simply loosing money - by having a "black-jewish-feminist-hater" in his staff.

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There's this concept of Dane Geld, popularly known also as "not negotiating with terrorists". If you show that you're willing to bow down to a random DDoS attack and fire someone as ransom, it only validates this method of action against you.

That's what terrorists do - they are trying to make an impression that their possible actions are much for dredful that what they'r asking from you. But it doesn't make you particularly bad if you feel scared, does it? And act out of fear? Like giving up something yours - one of your employees or, say, one of your freedoms?

I think you might have that concept backwards. Danegeld was payment to "terrorists" presumably arrived at through the pragmatic notion that paying for protection was better than being dead.

When people say "dane geld", they often refer to the poem of R. Kipling, "Dane-geld", which explains why you should not pay it. That's what I was referring to.

http://www.kiplingsociety.co.uk/poems_danegeld.htm

Adria specifically pointed out that she doesn't identify with the feminist movement, so I'd say it's a bit of a stretch to posture he may be a "black-jewish-feminist hater"

Yea, you're right. But this whole story is a lot about "exagerration" leading to brutal consequences. You remember - Adria overheard just one single innocent word(the joke itself wasn't innocent but pretty cool for techies). And (suddenly!) imagined herself a rapists target. And she was saved from their violent desires only by asking help from conference officials! Then everyone finds out that Hank is a brutal sexist, apparently! And you're saying "a bit of a stretch"! Here's a stretch - I believe he should've been thankful that was just fired and not electrocuted as sexism treatment that I'm sure was planned as the next logical move!

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