Bonum Certa Men Certa

How to Spot Diversion Tactics (Excuses and Distractions From Articles Not Convenient to the Reader)

Covered eyes



Summary: When the subject of an article harms oneself one is more likely to shoot the messenger (or the platform) rather than the article itself; here are some examples of patterns we've encountered/witnessed over the years

LET'S face it! There are companies out there that dislike Techrights because of things Techrights published about them. Those companies have employees and sometimes a loyal base of clients/supporters (Apple has plenty of these). So Techrights often becomes the target of cheap smears, with various individuals looking for excuses to never read Techrights and even tell people to do the same. It's very common among comments/commenters. Sometimes it's downright amusing.



If Techrights gets some facts wrong, state it out loud and upfront. But most complaints (almost all!) are saying nothing about the contents and instead changing the subject to something else (innuendo or nitpicking). Here are some examples: (I have encountered them all before)

"It's old news"

"I found a typo"

"The headline's capitalisation style is wrong"

"The site isn't mobile-friendly"

"The fonts are of the wrong size"

"The stylesheet isn't good with my browser"

"I don't like the site"

"I dislike the author"

"The site is not secure enough"

"The site is slow (or down at the moment, maybe due to load)"

"The English is grammatically correct, but I don't like its style"

"There's not enough background"

"The site links to itself too much"

"This is conspiracy theory!"

"The author is anonymous and thus lacks credibility"

"I saw some crank linking to this site, hence the site is run by cranks"

"This is clickbait because it makes me angry"

"This is insensitive or intolerant because it points out something correct like a crime (which I prefer not to talk about)"

"It's too strongly-worded and biased, e.g. it calls bribes "bribes" and not some euphemism like 'contribution' or 'sponsorship' or whatever..."

"The site looks like it needs a redesign and was made in the 1990s" (maybe it was! Doesn't discredit the substance, does it?)

"It's difficult on the eyes that I need to scroll and there's no glitz such as "like" buttons"

"Comment(er)s are foaming at the mouth and I will hold the original author accountable for these"

"The author does not understand the topic and is merely emotional"

"The article's site has a low budget; therefore, it cannot possibly get the story right"

"The format of the dates is American; I am not American, hence this site isn't for me"

"The site quotes an anonymous source to protect from retribution/reprisal; thus, the source is fabricated or is lying"

"There are too many articles in that site and I cannot keep up, hence there's something wrong with the site"

"The site covered this same subject before, hence it's merely repeating itself and the message thus lacks legitimacy/novelty"

"The author supports some particular politics or particular political party which I dislike, hence I will read no further"

"Authors aren't salaried for the work, hence they're not bossed by rich media owners and cannot possibly produce anything of value"

"The authors are too young to know what's going on; I'm older and I therefore know a lot more and have been around for longer; my views supersede all else"

"The article has far too many links; it really should be more like a professional newspaper, including not a single link or citation or traceable source"

"I don't have time to read something this long (tl;dr)"

"I don't like the picture in that article, so I will not read the article"

"This is pure hypocrisy because [add some smear about the author, whether factual or not]"

"Jealousy, hatred or bigotry/extremist views drove or motivated this posting; it's thus invalid"

"The article contains leaked communication, hence it does something borderline illegal and I should not examine the evidence at all"

The list goes on and on, but that's just exemplary.

Recent Techrights' Posts

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They were already outnumbered and understaffed
 
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Many of our readers work in the legal sector
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Links 31/07/2026: Microsoft Now Says Slop is Bad (LinkedIn Cracks Down on It), LinkedIn Narrows Down Size (No Expansion)
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Campinos is intent on transforming what was originally envisaged as a temporary public office into his own permanent personal feather-bed
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It's a threat to Europe's sovereignty
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In a healthy company such a CEO would be punished for utterly wrong visions and predictions. Not at IBM...
SLAPP Censorship - Part 135 Out of 200: Limited Liability Partnership (LLP) That Does Not Disclose Financial Activities Before August
It certainly looks like they keep losing the remaining women that still exist in the firm
Links 31/07/2026: "Climate Cover-Up Continues" and Pesticides "Cook the Planet"
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Archaeologists very well know that no species will survive forever
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the bubble is coming to its hard limits
Don't Lose Sight of the Impact of "End of 10" (Vista 10)
GNU/Linux has taken off fast
Microsoft's Debt Continues to Steadily Increase, Not Counting Hundreds of Billions in Secret/Hidden Debt
The mass layoffs will carry on, maybe labelled LITE
IBM is Circling Down the Drain, the 'Growth' Comes From Beancounting Tricks and Salary Cuts
IBM was down 2.17% yesterday
Microsoft's "Headcount" Distracts From How Big a Cull It Had This Month
It also speaks of numbers "[a]s of June 30" though the "buyouts" were effective July 1 and since then well over 10,000 workers have vanished
Over at Tux Machines...
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IRC Proceedings: Thursday, July 30, 2026
IRC logs for Thursday, July 30, 2026
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unethical practices
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Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
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Our #1 priority is sources
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complaints submitted to OLAF
The Era of Silence
So stay silent, remain hidden
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the integrity of this economy is only as good as its leaders or those who govern the market
TheLayoff.com Deletes Comment That Called IBM's Previous CEO, Ginni Rometty, "Gin 'n Tonic"
It is hard to believe the comment was deleted for being a duplicate (in another thread)
The Mainstream Media Continues to Overlook or Intentionally Ignore Hundreds of Billions in Hidden/Secret Microsoft Debt
the issue is that Microsoft's crisis is a lot greater and broader than this
SLAPP Censorship - Part 134 Out of 200: What "Majority Rules" Tell Us About the Litigant
we press on with this series
Overshoot Day Sites That Contribute to the Problem
Some of these are not even accessible (at all) without JavaScript
Microsoft May Have Gotten Rid of 8% of Its Workforce This Month
It's hard to know what's really going on because there's no transparency due to NDAs
Links 30/07/2026: "Age of Irrationality", Google Losing Money, and "House of Ellison is on the Brink"
Links for the day
Gemini Links 30/07/2026: Homeworlds Notes and Manuscript Submitted
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Over at Tux Machines...
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IRC Proceedings: Wednesday, July 29, 2026
IRC logs for Wednesday, July 29, 2026