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Slate Star Codex deletes site

blutoski said:
The operator of Rationalist website Slate Star Codex has deleted his site after a NYT reporter threatens to expose his his real world identity.

Link: [slatestarcodex.com]

New Yorker article: [Slate Star Codex and Silicon Valley’s War Against the Media]


blutoskitorial:
The NYorker does make some good points that suggest SSC's owner is overreacting, but I'm sympathetic.
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The New Yorker article was a long read and I'm not hugely sure I am any wiser having read it. The World appears to have become a much more violent and intolerant place since the early days of the Internet. When I started on Usenet I posted under my own name with my address of my town in my signature. I would not, do not, do that today. I fear the Crazies are in charge. :(
 
Gord_in_Toronto said:
The New Yorker article was a long read and I'm not hugely sure I am any wiser having read it. The World appears to have become a much more violent and intolerant place since the early days of the Internet. When I started on Usenet I posted under my own name with my address of my town in my signature. I would not, do not, do that today. I fear the Crazies are in charge. :(
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Well, 'crazies' is the key there. The author is a psychiatrist, so privacy is more credibly a safety issue for him.

In the NYT's defense, they prefer to avoid citing "anonymous sources" whenever possible, and the reporter argues that this was just consistent with that policy. Personally, I think it's disingenuous, like finding a loophole to turn an ordinary article into clickbait. And they weren't willing to make an exception for a professional risk.

The reason this directly applies to my situation - I am exploring a writing career, and for now, just publishing under a pseudonym - is that my wife is also a psychiatrist. Privacy becomes much more important when your family is literally on people's hit lists.
 
Why would being a psychiatrist make you any more vulnerable to doxxing, than being an accountant, say, or a lawyer, or whatever, as far as writing a rationalist blog?

(Haven't ever read the blog. And I'm entirely against ******* doxxing moves. Was just wondering about the psychiatrist bit.)
 
Chanakya said:
Why would being a psychiatrist make you any more vulnerable to doxxing, than being an accountant, say, or a lawyer, or whatever, as far as writing a rationalist blog?

(Haven't ever read the blog. And I'm entirely against ******* doxxing moves. Was just wondering about the psychiatrist bit.)
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I'm not sure it's the rationalist part that's the issue. I think it's the leakage of personal information.

I got the impression there were two dangers. Firstly, just the career risk as an employee in a company. This could probably apply to most people who have a boss. It's one reason I publish through a pseudonym, for example. Workplace retaliation is real.

But more specifically to psychiatry, there's a danger with exposing too much of your personal life. For one thing, when you have patients who bump up against the forensic system, some of them, you have to screw over and testify against in court. Some friends of ours got exposed through a friend of theirs identifying photos taken in their yard. The ex con was able to google street view and find out where they lived and there was an altercation. It's a risk.

This is where, in your examples above, actually some lawyers are also cautious about blogging. And judges. A friend of ours who is a judge publishes all his work through a pseudonym for similar reasons.
 
Well, just the first few blog posts, it seems like he's an intelligent and thoughtful man with an excellent command of the written word. Nothing on it looks very controversial (or even particularly interesting to the layperson). What on earth has he received death threats about?
 
blutoski said:
I'm not sure it's the rationalist part that's the issue. I think it's the leakage of personal information.

I got the impression there were two dangers. Firstly, just the career risk as an employee in a company. This could probably apply to most people who have a boss. It's one reason I publish through a pseudonym, for example. Workplace retaliation is real.

But more specifically to psychiatry, there's a danger with exposing too much of your personal life. For one thing, when you have patients who bump up against the forensic system, some of them, you have to screw over and testify against in court. Some friends of ours got exposed through a friend of theirs identifying photos taken in their yard. The ex con was able to google street view and find out where they lived and there was an altercation. It's a risk.

This is where, in your examples above, actually some lawyers are also cautious about blogging. And judges. A friend of ours who is a judge publishes all his work through a pseudonym for similar reasons.
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Agreed, for many/most people, anonymity when posting online seems a reasonable precaution to take, generally speaking.

Given the generally harmless nature of the blog (per people's accounts here -- I've not read it myself), that doxxing seems an out and out ******* move.


Somewhat off-topic musing: As far as anonymity, I'd say there are two, no three, ways people tend to look at it. Those, like me and presumably you as well, who default to anonymity on general principles. And those who don't seem to care much one way or the other. And finally, there are some, older folks IME, who tend to view online anonymity with suspicion.

While doxxing ought to be seen as violation of consent by all IMO (unless there's actual wrongdoing under its cover), nevertheless I suppose those who frown on anonymity on general principles might be less horrified -- supportive, even, in some cases -- by the idea of doxxing. (Again, barring actual wrongdoing. Redressing actual wrongdoing/criminality obviously trumps anonymity.)
 
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