Doxing: An Etymology | Hacker News Reader

Doxing: An Etymology

theatlantic.com

11 pointsgrej11 comments

Doxing is surely the supreme act of internet violence. I think this is what journalists don't understand. Anonymity on the internet is what gives one the absolute autonomy we all find so liberating. To unilaterally take that away from someone is probably the most aggressive and violent thing you can do while still remaining in the virtual world.

That doesn't necessarily mean it's always wrong for a journalist to do that, but it should give insight as to why people are so upset here.

I think a deeper issue is that a lot of nerds (term that I use here broadly to define people who grew up using usenet, BBS'es, wrote/contributed to the open source tools that power most of the internet, etc.) have a strong sense of ownership when it comes to the internet, and feel strongly about respecting netiquette (which includes not doxing people unless there's a crime underneath with extremely strong evidence, like for example when that teenager posted a video of himself torturing a cat on YouTube). It's pretty telling that acts like that are typically frowned upon even by websites where morals don't fly very high (e.g. 4chan).

Sadly, a lot of people who are foreign to that internet culture (like the Megan McGrath who penned the Newsweek article) aren't aware of these implied rules, or, if they are, they just don't care about it.

> like the Megan McGrath who penned the Newsweek article

The person who wrote the Newsweek article was Leah McGrath Goodman. Megan Graber wrote this article. Who the hell is Megan McGrath?

Oops, I wrote this when I was very tired last night. Meant Leah McGrath.

It was a repugnant act. Lawsuits may follow.

> "And journalists, for their part, have a long tradition of careful and nuanced thought when it comes to weighing private interests against public ones."

I'm sure some do, but as a whole? Come on.

Can we quit saying the word doxing? It sounds idiotic. How about the proper English word of "exposing" instead? Or is that too much to ask now that Internet talk is mainstream and therefore we have to use incorrect grammar?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linguistic_prescription

Call it what you like and I'll call it what I like. This is Hacker News after all. As such, there's an implied value of individual expression, if not anarchy, associated.

language is whatever people want it to be

How about you fix your username's spelling?

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