Talk:Cunningham's Law

Front page

This made the front page of reddit.^[1] Probably a huge rise in page views. PiRSquared17 (talk) 05:42, 8 March 2014 (UTC)

Best Approach?

Would the best way to get an answer then be to say something like, "TIL that cigarettes are as healthy as a morning jog (Altria Group, 2014)" and then await for the counter arguments on the matter? Mr. Julian Bradley (talk) 13:02, 9 March 2014 (UTC)

Yes, that is basically what this law/adage states. People on the Internet really love correcting people. Welcome, Julian. PiRSquared17 (talk) 13:04, 8 March 2014 (UTC)

Excellent reference, sir. Appreciate it. Mr. Julian Bradley (talk) 13:09, 9 March 2014 (UTC)

xkcd link

Diego Moya has removed the xkcd link. I believe it is appropriate for this page, and non-spammy. Does anyone else think it should be removed? PiRSquared17 (talk) 13:24, 8 March 2014 (UTC)

This is a talk page and the link is not being used to advertise a a product or site. Also, XKCD is not owned by PiRSquared17. It should not be removed. Mr. Julian Bradley (talk) 13:29, 8 March 2014 (UTC)

Apparently this person disapproves. PiRSquared17 (talk) 13:37, 8 March 2014 (UTC)

Nonsense. The xkcd link must be kept. --Nemo 13:43, 8 March 2014 (UTC)

We should make more xkcd links, not less. TeleComNasSprVen (talk) 20:59, 8 March 2014 (UTC)

It was removed again. Thoughts? PiRSquared17 (talk) 03:17, 11 November 2015 (UTC)

Reverted. Though I'm not sure of the connection to the French saying, that part might be removed or at least split to a separate paragraph. Nemo 07:13, 11 November 2015 (UTC)

Why I am here

I glanced at the right sidebar of Dave Winer's blog, and saw a link that reminded me of the xkcd "someone is wrong on the internet". The link was to Cunningham's Law and led me here. I incorrectly removed the category Law, which PiRSquared17 kindly replaced. I don't like the self-congratulatory, self-perpetuating usage of the word Law. The young'un's believe it is the word of God or a physical science law, like Boyle's Law, so I tried to make clear that this so called law isn't a law of physics or jurisprudence..--FeralOink (talk) 19:03, 15 March 2014 (UTC)

Hello, FeralOink. I'm sorry to hear about your father. I thought your removal of the category was accidental, although my edit summary was not good. I actually created the "Laws" category here after considering several other names, such as "Adages" (and asking about the category name on IRC, where nobody seemed to care). Obviously this "law" does not work 100% of the time, every time, and has not been confirmed in peer-reviewed journals, but it's not supposed to. If you think another category name would be better, you are free to propose one. Kindest regards, PiRSquared17 (talk) 19:10, 15 March 2014 (UTC)

pretty sure its "writer" stole the idea from others.

I was employing this exact strategy well before 2007. I'm sure I was not alone, I even said pretty much those exact words when I was done and had a answer.

How is 2007 relevant? The text currently dates it earlier than that: «This was his advice to me in the early 1980s». Did you use this exact strategy in the 1970s? Did you write it down somewhere? Nemo 17:51, 29 January 2016 (UTC)

Back in the '90s I coined and posted about a similar law on Usenet: the best way to get help with a problem is to post a claim that it's impossible. It was super useful to me when I was doing desktop support and we got our first Windows NT systems. But of course Google has completely broken search on their Usenet archives so I can't find a reference. -- Resuna (talk) 10:32, 1 August 2019 (UTC)

Is the original discussion archived?

The link to Schott's Blog only shows the original article, not the discussion section. The wayback machine doesn't have the discussion either. Does anyone have an archived copy of the whole discussion?

That "a colleague of mine at Tektronix. This was his advice to me" suggests it might have been a private conversation, unlikely to be archived. Nemo 11:09, 1 August 2019 (UTC)

Sherlock Holmes quote fitting?

"The main thing with people of that sort is never to let them think that their information can be of the slightest importance to you. If you do they will instantly shut up like an oyster. If you listen to them under protest, as it were, you are very likely to get what you want."

What does this have to do with Cunningham'a Law? Yes, Holmes is also describing an information gathering strategy. But it's a different strategy, with a completely different context.Mirghon (talk) 11:57, 16 December 2021 (UTC)

Wikipedia page

Is there a reason this isn't a Wikipedia page?

Can I just duplicate this article and make it into a Wikipedia page?

- IOHANNVSVERVS (talk) 21:41, 24 January 2024 (UTC)

Made it into a Wikipedia article. IOHANNVSVERVS (talk) 21:53, 24 January 2024 (UTC)