> So why not just look at feet on Instagram, or screenshot them for yourself? What do you get out of posting them to another website?
This question has always been weird to me, but apparently there are people who don’t experience “this thing is good, i wish to contribute” or “this has brought me joy, i wish to give something back”. I mean, thankfully there are still enough others that we can have Wikipedia, where you also don’t get anything in return. Not even “clout”. Sometimes someone will send you a thank you and that’ll make your day. Open Source is another obvious one, but it extends to the real world, too. Some people will plant flowers in public places or do yarnbombing or pick up trash in the neighborhood or whatever. Why do it? What do you get out of it? I mean, I don’t want to be harsh saying “what a dumb question”, but it just kind of makes me uncomfortable how it challenges something that should be celebrated.
The next question about it being invasive is good and valid, but this one on its own just sounds like “why not content yourself with passively consuming”. I’m glad he called himself “generous” because it’s true.
> there are people who don’t experience “this thing is good, i wish to contribute” or “this has brought me joy, i wish to give something back”
I have literally never experienced this feeling. I've thought about why I haven't a lot, and for me I think it's because I have no inherent sense of "community".
I went in thinking "meh, let's check" and was surprised and quite amused about the "wholesomeness" of what could have been a very strange encounter.
He seemed respectful and she seemed unbothered by the whole ordeal. Interesting, not my cup of tea, but definitely interesting.
Something else that caught my attention was how early he believes his interest for feet developed, as early as six and nine years of age. I wonder how this slightly amusing predilection grows and develops over time, as to even gain sexual connotation.
I found his “origin story” very interesting too. One theory I’ve heard for foot fetishism, which is the most common bodily fetish by far I believe, is essentially a neural equivalent of crossed-wires: Brain areas associated with the feet and with genitals being next to one another. His anecdote felt like an environmental thing though, with him having these foot-centric formative experiences. Though I guess you could spin it as nurture or nature - the experiences causing his fetish or simply this being the period when he first became aware of it as some latent thing.
I've been attracted to pregnant women since I was 3. Not gonna discuss my childhood much cause I do consider it private but it wasn't a sexual attraction then, but it was definitely a "I can't look away because I like looking at it" thing.
Perhaps it’s more like a sexual orientation than a fetish?
So it would not be something that a person is just interested in and grows with time, but a primal thing that just gets activated at a certain age for him (just like attraction to a different/same gender for most of us)
For every weird niche hobby there is a guy who is creating literal database of something with almost scientific precision.
Mix it with rule 34 and you got things like WikiFeet or some Czech site which is literal database of nude scenes in our whole cinema history (sorted by movies, actresses and director including screencaps of course).
Another one I love is philosopher.life, aka "h0p3's wiki" where this guy h0p3 shares his personal thoughts philosophies and personal online interactions. It's really charming and interesting and a real throwback to the "old Web" of personal websites.
There's also a pretty amusing epilogue/footnote to the article from the author, which I'll quote verbatim here:
"At the end of our interview he asked me to print out the piece, step in paint, step on the story, and mail it to him with my foot autograph. I might."
It's magnificent in that way, the man in question really is honest and open about it. I especially found the last answer pretty funny: "I had the nurse coming in at night showing me her feet. I actually took her out to dinner a couple times. I can just get girls out of their shoes, it’s a thing I can do."
The article reads like something that I might have seen online 15-20 years ago, before everyone went batshit crazy. It's nice. She covers it very matter-of-fact without trying to force the reader to view it or react to it in a particular way. It's the hallmark of someone with a noble intellect in this day and age.
I'm pretty sure that's just journalistic technique. You won't get answers out of someone by being combative. What's unusual is that she just posted a transcript of the conversation and didn't really turn it into a narrative piece.
It may seem like she's being a good sport and isn't bothered by this at all, but I don't think you can draw that conclusion.
The article’s title makes it seem like the person continues to upload her feet without her permission. I feel like that’s clickbait-y, but otherwise it’s impartial.
It otherwise could have been titled “An interview with the man who uploads my feet”, but I guess that one doesn’t invoke as much outrage.
There's something peaceful about people who know they're 'weird' compared to the masses, but really don't care. Finding confidence in who (and what) I am is really my goal in life.
Saying that, I'm not even that 'weird', I just always have thought about me from the perspective of others.
Fascinating - and surprisingly positive outcome/interaction - they were both great sports, particularly the writer.
Foot people always leave me feeling creeped out when I encounter them online and I think it is at least partly because it seems like many of them enjoy making others squirm about their affinity for feet almost as much as they enjoy the feet themselves.
I believe everyone has a right to their own fetishes. Nothing wrong with being into feet. But the thing that really puts me off about this interview and the WikiFeet website is the lack of consent. Uploading photos of someone without their consent is wrong. The fact that the purpose is to satisfy a fetish adds an extra layer of creepy. Regardless of how the interviewer feels about it, and regardless of whether the photos came from a public Instagram account, it's not ok to upload photos of someone to a fetish website without their consent.
I do not agree. These are photos posted publicly on Instagram or Facebook. Anyone could see them. This website just aggregates them, but there's technically a live link to these pictures. And no, the fact that someone uploads them to a service whose ToS they have accepted makes no difference. You're posting something publicly? To me that's explicit consent that you want people to see them.
If those pics were behind even the slightest wall (like a private account) or taken from private messages of course that would be different.
There is link-tracking on this article, and that's fine -- whatever. What blows my mind is how my browser (latest firefox) is seemingly enabling it. When you hover over the first link, it clearly shows in the bottom left corner that it will link to 'wikifeet.com', but if you actually click the link, my adblocker stops me from being redirected to 'redirectingat.com'.
Why does my browser lie to me like this?
edit: inspect element clearly shows
<a href="https://www.wikifeet.com/Laura_Bassett"> my wikiFeet page</a>
What's going on here? Is it replacing the links on mousedown?
Yes, mousedown replace the href attribute, and then a few milliseconds after put the original link back. To debug that king of thing, you just put a break point on attribute modification of the link attributes, and you will see there is js triggered
You know how every now and then someone comments "That's it, HN has officially become Reddit" or something along those lines? Well, I think this would be a good opportunity...
(Usually, those comments get downvoted, so please feel free.)
I am sympathetic to your viewpoint, but personally I find "exploring weird internet subcultures" within the spirit of hacking, if not the letter of the law. I'd much rather see this than a lot of the start-up related stuff posted here.
Why do you think they are downvoted? To me, it comes across as pretentious grandstanding, but I also understand the sentiment. I've not been using hacker news for very long, so I'm not familiar with what was posted 5+ years ago
Nahh nahh. You are absolutely right. I love it when the techno "elite" throws out their principles the moment something feels icky but has no set social norms only parallels that are to icky to think about in an objective way.
So you are absolutely correct. Hn is just reddit suddenly
Interesting that here is yet another site that depends on IMDB in an essential way. I wonder what happens to that whole ecosystem if the database becomes more limited in how it can be accessed, or if it stops being updated and maintained in the same way.
> I don’t really get anything out of it. I just like to share it. I mean, people like feet, like me, and you have beautiful feet, and I just put it on there. I just think I’m helping other people out. I mean, I do save some for myself.
Yet Sci-hub is not legal.
I think I'm in the wrong timeline.
Are there others out like me?
Where do you go to chat, and may I chat there, please?
Looking at the headline I tensed up feeling how intrusive and even abusive this could feel for her. Was happy to find a good-natured exchange between the two and the guy didn't come over as creepy at all, even though his hobby probably will feel like stalking to other women.
I guess it's because feet just toe the line between ordinary photos - there are huge celeb sites - and more intimate ones you wouldn't want to see posted online.
[+] [-] pwdisswordfish0|5 years ago|reply
This question has always been weird to me, but apparently there are people who don’t experience “this thing is good, i wish to contribute” or “this has brought me joy, i wish to give something back”. I mean, thankfully there are still enough others that we can have Wikipedia, where you also don’t get anything in return. Not even “clout”. Sometimes someone will send you a thank you and that’ll make your day. Open Source is another obvious one, but it extends to the real world, too. Some people will plant flowers in public places or do yarnbombing or pick up trash in the neighborhood or whatever. Why do it? What do you get out of it? I mean, I don’t want to be harsh saying “what a dumb question”, but it just kind of makes me uncomfortable how it challenges something that should be celebrated.
The next question about it being invasive is good and valid, but this one on its own just sounds like “why not content yourself with passively consuming”. I’m glad he called himself “generous” because it’s true.
[+] [-] finexplained|5 years ago|reply
I have literally never experienced this feeling. I've thought about why I haven't a lot, and for me I think it's because I have no inherent sense of "community".
[+] [-] mattmanser|5 years ago|reply
You're not really contributing, it's more akin to showing off your stamp collection, but with sexual undertones that make many feel uncomfortable.
[+] [-] teachingassist|5 years ago|reply
The scenario includes bringing potential harm to an identified person.
[+] [-] exikyut|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] jdsalaro|5 years ago|reply
He seemed respectful and she seemed unbothered by the whole ordeal. Interesting, not my cup of tea, but definitely interesting.
Something else that caught my attention was how early he believes his interest for feet developed, as early as six and nine years of age. I wonder how this slightly amusing predilection grows and develops over time, as to even gain sexual connotation.
[+] [-] agency|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] vvvvgood633|5 years ago|reply
Lately it’s gotten to be more of an “in theory” than “in practice” thing for me as I’ve come to learn about fungus and micro biome, etc.
Eg https://au.news.yahoo.com/man-contracts-lung-infection-smell...
[+] [-] MeinBlutIstBlau|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] kolinko|5 years ago|reply
So it would not be something that a person is just interested in and grows with time, but a primal thing that just gets activated at a certain age for him (just like attraction to a different/same gender for most of us)
[+] [-] severak_cz|5 years ago|reply
Mix it with rule 34 and you got things like WikiFeet or some Czech site which is literal database of nude scenes in our whole cinema history (sorted by movies, actresses and director including screencaps of course).
[+] [-] exikyut|5 years ago|reply
The thing that makes me double-take is the consistency, breadth and depth, and liveness of the tag system.
Like, I want this level of OCD, meets del.icio.us, meets HN.
[+] [-] beaconstudios|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] ewwhite|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] optimalsolver|5 years ago|reply
[deleted]
[+] [-] rincebrain|5 years ago|reply
"At the end of our interview he asked me to print out the piece, step in paint, step on the story, and mail it to him with my foot autograph. I might."
- https://twitter.com/LEBassett/status/1379878161589153793
[+] [-] ColeyG|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] janpot|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] bartvk|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] adventured|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] tootie|5 years ago|reply
It may seem like she's being a good sport and isn't bothered by this at all, but I don't think you can draw that conclusion.
[+] [-] unknown|5 years ago|reply
[deleted]
[+] [-] anthony_romeo|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] unknown|5 years ago|reply
[deleted]
[+] [-] lotsofpulp|5 years ago|reply
It otherwise could have been titled “An interview with the man who uploads my feet”, but I guess that one doesn’t invoke as much outrage.
[+] [-] salex89|5 years ago|reply
Some human quirks are fun. Maybe because this guy doesn't look intimidating.
[+] [-] ondrek|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] kthartic|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] Hallmane|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] everly|5 years ago|reply
Foot people always leave me feeling creeped out when I encounter them online and I think it is at least partly because it seems like many of them enjoy making others squirm about their affinity for feet almost as much as they enjoy the feet themselves.
[+] [-] yosito|5 years ago|reply
I believe everyone has a right to their own fetishes. Nothing wrong with being into feet. But the thing that really puts me off about this interview and the WikiFeet website is the lack of consent. Uploading photos of someone without their consent is wrong. The fact that the purpose is to satisfy a fetish adds an extra layer of creepy. Regardless of how the interviewer feels about it, and regardless of whether the photos came from a public Instagram account, it's not ok to upload photos of someone to a fetish website without their consent.
[+] [-] camillomiller|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] nickysielicki|5 years ago|reply
Why does my browser lie to me like this?
edit: inspect element clearly shows
What's going on here? Is it replacing the links on mousedown?[+] [-] polote|5 years ago|reply
Yes, mousedown replace the href attribute, and then a few milliseconds after put the original link back. To debug that king of thing, you just put a break point on attribute modification of the link attributes, and you will see there is js triggered
[+] [-] detaro|5 years ago|reply
> What's going on here? Is it replacing the links on mousedown?
Yes. Observe what happens to the URL shown when you right-click the link.
[+] [-] kleiba|5 years ago|reply
(Usually, those comments get downvoted, so please feel free.)
[+] [-] taspeotis|5 years ago|reply
I feel this submission is too quirky and long-form for the front page of Reddit. On occasion HN does a good job surfacing these sorts of articles.
[1] https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html
[+] [-] Wohlf|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] Karsteski|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] thendrill|5 years ago|reply
So you are absolutely correct. Hn is just reddit suddenly
[+] [-] prvc|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] mensetmanusman|5 years ago|reply
How many users would continue to use Instagram?
[+] [-] Ceezy|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] jancsika|5 years ago|reply
Yet Sci-hub is not legal.
I think I'm in the wrong timeline.
Are there others out like me?
Where do you go to chat, and may I chat there, please?
[+] [-] Clewza313|5 years ago|reply
Interestingly, while it's been around for years, the word "boob" means it's basically invisible to Google.
[+] [-] throw14082020|5 years ago|reply
Now I can see an important problem to solve. Innovation!
[+] [-] thendrill|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] unknown|5 years ago|reply
[deleted]
[+] [-] iSnow|5 years ago|reply
I guess it's because feet just toe the line between ordinary photos - there are huge celeb sites - and more intimate ones you wouldn't want to see posted online.
[+] [-] Ruthalas|5 years ago|reply