He literally gave a case (from memory) about the industry being an early adopter of technology. Not every anecdote needs a citation. Where's your citation about it being a myth?
Man, posts like this are so prevalent on HN. Why can't people stop and think about whether their words are useful to the conversation?
The top-level post gave an anecdote that is culturally-assumed to be true, with nothing to back it. Let's suppose the story was instead about vaccinating children. Someone comes in, says "yet another example of how vaccines are harmful; they already give kids autism". You're just going to let that slide, and criticize those that point out the false assumptions?
Where's your citation about it being a myth?
The burden of proof does not lie with...oh, c'mon, you know this. Personally, I've given a fair shot at finding the boolean answer to the question. Best I can find, and the facts are sketchy at best, is the porn industry sucked at payment processing and the early card processing was done by a company that saw the need and filled it. But selling picks and shovels doesn't make you a miner.
Man, posts like this are so prevalent on HN.
Like what? The kind that call out urban legends, or the kind that perpetuate them?
This is really blowing my mind. Top comment is a hackneyed myth I didn't think anyone - even in porn - seriously believed. And any comment even remotely to the contrary is downvoted.
The down votes I don't care about; I've got more points than I'll ever be able to spend (I can spend these points at the HN Company Store, right?). But the "but everybody knows that!" mentality that wouldn't be tolerated on any other topic just...mystifies me. Meh, we all have religious orthodoxy that dare not be questioned, and for some it's apparently "pr0n drives the tech industry".
I don't care about the points (otherwise I wouldn't have posted again, knowing the same people will just neg more), I'm just amazed some people believe this myth so strongly that they immediately downvote any and every post, from multiple posters, making different points challenging it. It's a totally a bizarre reaction.
> He literally gave a case (from memory) about the industry being an early adopter of technology. Not every anecdote needs a citation.
No, he didn't give a case (of porn pushing technology), and he also didn't say his claim was from memory or was an anecdote. So what are you talking about?
He claimed porn used credit cards before "virtually anyone". Which is vague to the point of meaningless, concedes porn was in fact not first, and has zero to back it up anyway.
It's simply a boring "observation" people love to repeat when the topic of porn crops up. That it's actually the top comment here, rather than something about the actual story/submission, is unbelievable.
> Where's your citation about it being a myth?
The fact that there is nothing to back up the claim that porn innovated or pushed technology makes it a myth. You cannot possibly not understand this, so I don't know why you're asking for a "citation".
> Why can't people stop and think about whether their words are useful to the conversation?
If you want to go down that route, what's so "useful" about trotting out an age-old hackneyed myth about porn? What's so "useful" about your reply to me?
I thought it was common knowledge that porn drove innovation in tech. :-) I had a hard time finding info on the web about Richard Morgan, but the NY Times is probably a decent citation.
Mr. Gordon, 62, played a significant role in the birth of electronic commerce.
While Amazon.com and eBay were still fledgling enterprises, the companies
that Mr. Gordon founded in the early 1990s were already laying the groundwork
for electronic transactions conducted with credit cards —
a development that opened the doors to the first generation of e-commerce start-ups.
Also, credit card processing was used to verify age:
In 2001 ... these companies ... were imperative for the industry’s existence:
Adult Check, CyberAge, CCBill and Internet Billing Co.
[E]ndorsed for age verification by ... in the Communications
Decency Act 1996, the credit card [was] like a magic wand.
[B]y requiring one, porn industries could immediately side step
anyone accusing them of displaying porn to minors.
> I thought it was common knowledge that porn drove innovation in tech.
Well, it's a common myth that some people love to repeat. And apparently some people here are very touchy about their favourite myths being challenged.
Your first link appears to be an account of a credit card processor who, in the late 1990s ("early 1990s" in your quote is misleading), did processing for porn sites. The second link is about adult-specific credit card processors from 2001.
All that shows is that, as with every other claim of "innovation" I've ever seen, porn companies started to do what regular businesses were already doing.
Possible areas where porn may have "innovated", however, are the likes of credit card banging and malware/dialers.
Man, posts like this are so prevalent on HN. Why can't people stop and think about whether their words are useful to the conversation?