Hacker News Reader

Comment by arn | Hacker News Reader

fwiw, they didn't just submit to reddit and wait. They also submitted it to (at least some) sites directly. Doesn't look like any dedicated rumors sites actually published it. Getting fake rumor submissions is a daily occurrence for rumor sites.

The actual stories were posted on smaller sites which questioned the authenticity. And Wired actually did an article on custom screws and used the image as a jumping off point: http://www.wired.com/gadgetlab/2012/08/if-theres-a-screw-the...

So you can look at as either a success or failure.

(disclaimer: I run MacRumors.com)

View on HN

Actually, this comment here is the one that makes me think. I realised when I ran across it that I and, judging by the comments in this thread, others are taking the article at face value as truth despite that same article having just told us not to do that.

That direction of thinking will only drive you crazy. Skepticism is good but don't take it too far.

Also there is at least some proof that it was posted 5 days ago: http://imgur.com/fkyQS and http://www.reddit.com/r/apple/comments/xvnvo/a_friend_took_a...

I suppose we can question that day4.se were really the ones who planted it... but, does it matter who planted it? The conclusion is the same.

Please, examine the post to which I replied. The point is not a question of whether the facts you laid out are true. You are correct in that they don't matter so much. But consider in the context of the GP post: we have the article appearing to lay things out fairly closely to "look how much everyone believed us" versus the comment saying "well, not everyone". That is to say, the message of the article still holds just fine, but it would still be fair to carry this direction of thinking as far as "is their analysis totally on the level?" Given that this is more or less the message of the article, I was just noting how, even with this very message in front of us, we aren't necessarily heeding it as well as we could.

Ah, that wasn't quite clear. I agree, day4.se may not have had the effect they claimed they had.

I understand that these other sites have to cover the latest story or else they'll lose pageviews or be considered irrelevant or whatever, but to me that is the sign of a flawed system. If you don't have the resources to fact-check something (because you've laid off so many people), and other sites (like macrumors.com) do, then you should leave that story alone and let others fact-check it. I'm tired of every major news site trying to be all things to all people. We have aggregators now, so only a few sites need to cover any one thing, and people will still find out about it.

I've only partially thought through this argument, so I'm sure it has all sorts of holes and will be easy to misinterpret in every way possible, but I'm throwing it out there anyways.

There is really no possible fact checking on this. This is a 100% anonymous post. Unless you happen to know someone who works in this particular department at Apple.

Exactly. What we don't know is how many organizations came across this tip and decided not to run a story on it, since they didn't have any such contacts. We do know that some decided to write a story anyways, even though they had zero corroborating evidence, in case...?

I'm betting, and you could let us know on the real number, that there's rumours like this constantly, and most mac rumour sites (and there are plenty) weed through 90% of the bull.

I think this story is getting more press than it really deserves.

"I think this story is getting more press than it really deserves."

Don't you think that was the whole point of the authors in the first place? I mean, here we are, talking about this again! Even if we all end up flaming the authors, here we are.

There is no such thing as bad press. I don't believe for a second it was some "experiment". Please.. it's a press stunt. And it worked.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com