Source
r/learntohack•
NiBuch

Rules and Policies Discussion

Along with discussing what we want in this subreddit, we should also discuss rules and policies. The two major ideas I have for rules are that we should provide information with a disclaimer and that r/learntohack should not be affiliated with any hacking group.

I think it wise that all information in this subreddit be provided with a "use at your own risk" disclaimer. The idea here is to protect contributors from being held liable for what others may do with the materials they've provided. Obviously, not everything in this subreddit will be immediately useable for breaching secure systems. However, in the event an overzealous prosecutor goes after our users for providing/teaching the means to do so, a simple disclaimer in the sidebar may provide us with some legal shielding. (I'm not sure on the specific legalities of this, but it definitely couldn't hurt.)

I also think that, as an educational community, r/learntohack should not be affiliated with any hacking group (ex. Lulzsec, Anonymous, etc.), nor should it ever be. Our goal is to teach people to be hackers, not crackers, and this subreddit should never be seen as a group's training ground. Similarly, I think it would be inappropriate to promote any specific political, economic, religious, or similar ideals through the content we submit. My feeling is that content like, "A Breakdown Of Anon's Attack Against Mega Corp." might be alright for educational purposes. 'Announcement' posts like "Legion of Doom Steals Thousands Of SSNs" or "Religitologists Take Down Marriage Equality/Peace Poetry Site" belong in r/hacking, r/HackBloc, or a number of other related subreddits.

Of course, these are all open for discussion. What do you think of an r/learntohack disclaimer and keeping the subreddit unaffiliated? What other rules and policies should we adopt?

Posted Jul 11, 2012, 8:19 PM UTC

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djnathanv•

'Educational purposes only' and 'use at own risk' are good to have and I absolutely agree with no affiliation with a 'group' out there. I'd personally also suggest that there should be some type of rule that calls out that posts that specifically support illegal activity, carding, id theft, and similar aren't allowed. There's no value, as a hacker, to sites that assist in sharing of people's personal data.

Hacking is about curiosity, information freedom, and so many other things... but not identity and financial fraud.

3
HypergeometricPFQ•

Yeah a disclaimer would be a good idea, outlining that this isn't affiliated with any groups/organisations. That it this is for education, teaching valuable security skills, and also what is mentioned on the side bar, but add something along the lines of how you want to steer potential hackers to be responsible members of their community.

1