disabling HSTS [LWN.net]

disabling HSTS

Posted Apr 22, 2017 8:21 UTC (Sat) by aggelos (subscriber, #41752)
In reply to: disabling HSTS by pabs
Parent article: Tor exit node operator arrested in Russia (TorServers.net blog)

Can I go a bit meta? I'm not sure articles diverging from the open source orthodoxy are a great idea for LWN (but see below).

One characteristic of LWN is that, AFAIU, people look forward to reading it as part of their Thursday morning routine (or daily routine now), knowing that there's a minimal chance it'll get their pulse rate up. Perhaps I'm mistaken, but the editors seem to have settled (in practice; not saying they actually discussed this) on a "no original controversy" (akin to Wikipedia's "no original research") rule. There's something to be said for this (apparent) rule. While I'm sure position articles which are controversial for the current audience of LWN would drive hits (and links) up, it's not obvious to me that people would want to fund such a publishing venue. Linking to an article that people are not comfortable with is one thing, having LWN endorse it by (possibly paying for its) publication is quite another.

So while some of us would appreciate reading articles which challenge our world view on LWN, would we keep paying for it if it did that regularly and deliberately? Probably not. I have zero data on this (and would very much like to learn more about actual case or aggregate studies), but I suspect a smaller, slowly-growing, ideologically-homogeneous (more or less) reader base is better suited to a subscriber-based site than a larger, polarized (across any number of axes) one.

That said, I do think there's room for experimentation within the current subscription model without succumbing to trollumnism. Say, by considering views which are in opposition to the kernel's groupthink regarding abuse or critical of the LF (or actually, any views which our editors might be mildly uncomfortable with but think are relevant to LWN's audience). The way things are, I doubt outside contributors would feel comfortable approaching LWN with such articles. But every move towards diversity acts as positive feedback.

So while I can't claim it's a Great Idea for LWN to do that, it is for the LWN I want to subscribe to. It might even be a Good Idea when it comes to low-hanging fruit such as the topic of this subthread here :-)

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disabling HSTS

Posted Apr 22, 2017 13:10 UTC (Sat) by anarcat (subscriber, #66354) [Link]

Can I go a bit meta? I'm not sure articles diverging from the open source orthodoxy are a great idea for LWN (but see below).

Sure, but then we're deep into off-topic territory, and you're making me want an article about journalism itself, even though I just started here. ;)

As a new contributor here, I understand what you are talking about, but I identify it more with my own nature than LWN itself: I assume certain topics are off the table, and just self censor, so far. I have yet to come across direct editorial interference in my work, in general. The only exception is one case where I have made a broad social statement that was for me a basic axiom ("large corporations are bad", more or less) but that for the general public may not be a given fact. Keeping that argument in place would have required an elaborate rationalization of the argument, which defeated its purpose: it was supposed to be an argument, not an axiom. :) The trick is that controversial topics are, by nature, harder to argue than well-established positions, which is why you are going to have trouble finding journalists argue those correctly.

Nevertheless, I am, generally, confident that I will be able to bring controversial topics here - and I believe I did a few times already. As a journalist, however, your duty is not to take sides but to reflect on a discussion or situation that is already happening between different parties. Sure, there are opinion pieces to be made, but even those, I feel, are stronger when they are backed by strong arguments. In that context, your comment is even more interesting because it brings nice sound bites I can quote in an article while keeping critical distance. ;)

And as pabs said, there's a "Write for us" button on the left column, try it out and be the media.

disabling HSTS

Posted Apr 24, 2017 17:53 UTC (Mon) by Wol (subscriber, #4433) [Link]

> Can I go a bit meta? I'm not sure articles diverging from the open source orthodoxy are a great idea for LWN (but see below).

I miss Groklaw. But that had aggressive moderation. There were some wonderful off-topic conversations there. PJ just had this simple rule - you could argue anything you liked so long as you had the facts/argument to back yourself up, and you weren't offensive.

(This did cause a few problems, when English and American disagreed as to what was offensive ...)

Cheers,
Wol