
Ask YC: Innocuous news? - andr
Did HN get hacked? Screenshot here: http://dl.getdropbox.com/u/10731/Snapshot%202009-04-23%2016-45-32.png
======
pg
No, I just changed the name for a bit.

<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=575487>

~~~
tptacek
Can you do me a favor and change the word "News" to "Important Work Site".

~~~
edw519
Why stop there?

How about "User Acceptance Testing - Phase III Results". I won't have to alt-
tab so much.

Hell, maybe pg can make the whole site look like an IDE.

~~~
joshwa
c.f. <http://spreadtweets.elliottkember.com/>

------
pedalpete
I rather liked the strange looks I got from reading Hacker News, but at least
I learned a new word today

Innocuous - 1\. not harmful or injurious; harmless: an innocuous home remedy.
2\. not likely to irritate or offend; inoffensive; an innocuous remark. 3\.
not interesting, stimulating, or significant; pallid; insipid: an innocuous
novel.

~~~
JabavuAdams
I read a lot, but I have a habit of glossing over words for which I have a
vague sense, but not a precise definition.

For a while, whenever I'd read something, I'd just quickly jot down any word
for which I couldn't come up with a good definition. Later, I'd look them up.

It works, and it's saved me some embarrassment. Schadenfreude didn't mean what
I thought it meant.

~~~
eru
What did you think it meant? (Just curious - I am a native German speaker.)

~~~
JabavuAdams
Bittersweet joy, rather than joy in someone else's misfortune.

~~~
eru
Plausible. I guess the word could have taken that meaning.

------
okeumeni
Innocuous News; Even creepier than Hacker news : )

~~~
minalecs
agree theres some unusually shady about something claiming to be innocuous

------
mattlanger
In our office you get funny looks if you _don't_ read Hacker News.

~~~
stewiecat
I dream of such places, thanks for letting my know that, unlike unicorns, they
exist.

~~~
grinich
There's no reason for them not to exist, you just may not have found one yet.

Just like magnetic monopoles...

~~~
Confusion
And if you cannot find one, you should found one.

~~~
eru
That requires a lot of energy. (For both cases.)

------
dfranke
When I run into ignorance about the hacker/cracker distinction and don't feel
like going into the whole schpiel, I find that the phrase "relax; I work for
the good guys" is sufficient to calm people down.

------
LotusMegami
I suggest "l33t |-|@xx0r n3\/\/5"

------
mattyb
No. See <http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=575487>

~~~
andr
I hope it's not permanent.

Why not encode "Hacker" using HTML entities so content blockers don't catch
it?

~~~
thorax
It was more of an issue for people looking over people's shoulders.

------
maclifer
Wonderful! Saves the creepy looks from those who keep an eye on the office...
now just bewildered looks.

------
hwijaya
Actually, i like it as Hacker News. I'm just so used to say it as "Hacker
News" to explain things to my team. Can't imagine having to pronounce
"Innocuous News".

------
csomar
I like the name "hacker" why change it for all of us, the one who habe
problems with it use a userscript

------
AlleyRow
I like Innocuous, but you could always give "hacker" a weird web 2.0 spelling
to solve the problem.

~~~
whughes
That would be a step in the wrong direction, in my opinion. Pseudo-leetspeek
hacker news? It's even sketchier.

------
vlad
Allow us to customize the title, just like we can customize the title bar
background.

------
pcrawfor
awesome

