News for hackers. Stuff that matters.

Ask YC: Innocuous news?

Did HN get hacked? Screenshot here: http://dl.getdropbox.com/u/10731/Snapshot%202009-04-23%2016-45-32.png
( 45 comments | 70 points | on HN )
Re:Ask YC: Innocuous news? by pg on Thursday April 23, 2009 @11:47AM (#575828)
No, I just changed the name for a bit.

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

Re:Ask YC: Innocuous news? by jgrahamc on Thursday April 23, 2009 @11:54AM (#575855)
Perhaps I could have that as an entry possible in my settings. With sufficient karma you get to rename the site.
Re:Ask YC: Innocuous news? by vaksel on Thursday April 23, 2009 @11:59AM (#575878)
Re:Ask YC: Innocuous news? by tokenadult on Thursday April 23, 2009 @03:45PM (#576344)
Re:Ask YC: Innocuous news? by tptacek on Thursday April 23, 2009 @11:59AM (#575877)
Can you do me a favor and change the word "News" to "Important Work Site".
Re:Ask YC: Innocuous news? by frossie on Thursday April 23, 2009 @03:12PM (#576297)
Given all the complaints about the increasing popularity of the site, I was more expecting "Boring News, Nothing Funny Here, Go Back to Tech Crunch" or something.
Re:Ask YC: Innocuous news? by edw519 on Thursday April 23, 2009 @12:13PM (#575916)
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.

Re:Ask YC: Innocuous news? by joshwa on Thursday April 23, 2009 @12:33PM (#575960)
Re:Ask YC: Innocuous news? by Xichekolas on Thursday April 23, 2009 @05:44PM (#576539)
Added title rename to my GM script: http://userscripts.org/scripts/show/25039
Re:Ask YC: Innocuous news? by asimjalis on Thursday April 23, 2009 @03:38PM (#576332)
Why not call it Make Something People Want News. It might focus the mind of the posters and reduce off-topic posts. Also "Innocuous News" has the feel of an inside joke; it might lead to a recurring Ask-HN thread about the name.
Re:Ask YC: Innocuous news? by cubicle67 on Thursday April 23, 2009 @12:30PM (#575946)
Could we have it back again? I quite like it. Appeals to my somewhat odd taste.
Re:Ask YC: Innocuous news? by pg on Thursday April 23, 2009 @03:09PM (#576291)
Don't worry, it will only last for the current server process. I just changed the name in the repl.
Re:Ask YC: Innocuous news? by far33d on Thursday April 23, 2009 @01:15PM (#576045)
Maybe higher karma users could change the title dynamically like they can change the top bar color?
Re:Ask YC: Innocuous news? by pedalpete on Thursday April 23, 2009 @11:47AM (#575832)
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.

Re:Ask YC: Innocuous news? by JabavuAdams on Thursday April 23, 2009 @01:17PM (#576050)
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.

Re:Ask YC: Innocuous news? by Confusion on Thursday April 23, 2009 @02:56PM (#576269)
I find that an amazing thing about language, that you often don't need a precise definition, because the meaning is clear from the context. Perhaps 'innocuous' isn't the best example, as 'innocent' is well known and pretty close, but it also works for words that you lack any 'hint' for.

I looked up innocuous when I saw the title change, but didn't really learn anything new.

Re:Ask YC: Innocuous news? by eru on Thursday April 23, 2009 @01:45PM (#576119)
What did you think it meant? (Just curious - I am a native German speaker.)
Re:Ask YC: Innocuous news? by JabavuAdams on Thursday April 23, 2009 @01:53PM (#576140)
Bittersweet joy, rather than joy in someone else's misfortune.
Re:Ask YC: Innocuous news? by eru on Friday April 24, 2009 @09:27AM (#577450)
Plausible. I guess the word could have taken that meaning.
Re:Ask YC: Innocuous news? by ableal on Thursday April 23, 2009 @01:18PM (#576054)
Mostly harmless. Or '42'. Just plain '42'.

(if you need to ask, you can't afford it ;-)

Re:Ask YC: Innocuous news? by pasbesoin on Thursday April 23, 2009 @08:40PM (#576743)
Deep Thought
Re:Ask YC: Innocuous news? by GrandMasterBirt on Thursday April 23, 2009 @02:41PM (#576242)
Mostly Harmless News. Definitely what it should be. DON'T PANIC!
Re:Ask YC: Innocuous news? by javanix on Thursday April 23, 2009 @01:11PM (#576032)
You really hadn't heard it before today?
Re:Ask YC: Innocuous news? by icey on Thursday April 23, 2009 @04:26PM (#576422)
Not everyone here is a native English speaker.
Re:Ask YC: Innocuous news? by Ardit20 on Thursday April 23, 2009 @12:18PM (#575924)
The word sounds much more interesting than what it actually means though. I like it :)
Re:Ask YC: Innocuous news? by okeumeni on Thursday April 23, 2009 @11:58AM (#575872)
Innocuous News; Even creepier than Hacker news : )
Re:Ask YC: Innocuous news? by minalecs on Thursday April 23, 2009 @02:30PM (#576222)
agree theres some unusually shady about something claiming to be innocuous
Re:Ask YC: Innocuous news? by mattlanger on Thursday April 23, 2009 @01:19PM (#576061)
In our office you get funny looks if you don't read Hacker News.
Re:Ask YC: Innocuous news? by stewiecat on Thursday April 23, 2009 @01:55PM (#576150)
I dream of such places, thanks for letting my know that, unlike unicorns, they exist.
Re:Ask YC: Innocuous news? by grinich on Thursday April 23, 2009 @02:36PM (#576233)
There's no reason for them not to exist, you just may not have found one yet.

Just like magnetic monopoles...

Re:Ask YC: Innocuous news? by Confusion on Thursday April 23, 2009 @02:47PM (#576255)
And if you cannot find one, you should found one.
Re:Ask YC: Innocuous news? by eru on Friday April 24, 2009 @09:53AM (#577482)
That requires a lot of energy. (For both cases.)
Re:Ask YC: Innocuous news? by dfranke on Thursday April 23, 2009 @01:53PM (#576139)
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.
Re:Ask YC: Innocuous news? by LotusMegami on Thursday April 23, 2009 @12:54PM (#575992)
I suggest "l33t |-|@xx0r n3\/\/5"
Re:Ask YC: Innocuous news? by mattyb on Thursday April 23, 2009 @11:46AM (#575823)
Re:Ask YC: Innocuous news? by andr on Thursday April 23, 2009 @11:49AM (#575841)
I hope it's not permanent.

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

Re:Ask YC: Innocuous news? by thorax on Thursday April 23, 2009 @11:55AM (#575863)
It was more of an issue for people looking over people's shoulders.
Re:Ask YC: Innocuous news? by tomjen on Thursday April 23, 2009 @12:53PM (#575988)
I got a much better idea - why not just spell it hazer?
Re:Ask YC: Innocuous news? by maclifer on Thursday April 23, 2009 @12:12PM (#575910)
Wonderful! Saves the creepy looks from those who keep an eye on the office... now just bewildered looks.
Re:Ask YC: Innocuous news? by hwijaya on Thursday April 23, 2009 @01:47PM (#576124)
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".
Re:Ask YC: Innocuous news? by csomar on Thursday April 23, 2009 @01:55PM (#576148)
I like the name "hacker" why change it for all of us, the one who habe problems with it use a userscript
Re:Ask YC: Innocuous news? by AlleyRow on Thursday April 23, 2009 @03:41PM (#576336)
I like Innocuous, but you could always give "hacker" a weird web 2.0 spelling to solve the problem.
Re:Ask YC: Innocuous news? by whughes on Thursday April 23, 2009 @08:30PM (#576730)
That would be a step in the wrong direction, in my opinion. Pseudo-leetspeek hacker news? It's even sketchier.
Re:Ask YC: Innocuous news? by vlad on Thursday April 23, 2009 @04:22PM (#576411)
Allow us to customize the title, just like we can customize the title bar background.
Re:Ask YC: Innocuous news? by pcrawfor on Thursday April 23, 2009 @12:09PM (#575900)
awesome