EDIT: For the user whom penalized my comment score, why?
Probably because you claimed that the example was contrived when it is actually very real, and is something many visitors to HN have specifically faced, and is a particularly ironic case given that the target software is critical security software, given essentially the keys to the lands.
Ultimately many of us simply have to assume that Google's pagerank is the surest sign of the credibility of a link, but of course we know that can be gamed. And even had this site been on an appropriate domain with HTTPS, even that shows little given the completely lack of vigilance by most SSL cert firms now (partly at the behest of the tech community who find the cert process annoying and expensive).
I have a few arguments about the way the article took his/her argument down.
1. There was no mention of http://putty.en.softonic.com/
2. If you are looking for an SSH client, you are not a normal user and should know that CYGWin or Putty are freely available.
3. Using whois is considered more advanced end-user techniques.
4. Continual complaints that the download server doesn't have SSL. It's annoying and bad. Trying it again and again is kind of pointless. You made your point.
5. Tries to get the author's key via the MIT PGP server. This is NOT end-user stuff here.
You seem to be arguing that the article wasn't an entirely different article. As __david__ rightly mentioned, he doesn't say "this is what the average person encounters". Indeed, I think the situation is even more profound given that it is, quite specifically, talking about security software that fairly adept practitioners use.
Probably because you claimed that the example was contrived when it is actually very real, and is something many visitors to HN have specifically faced, and is a particularly ironic case given that the target software is critical security software, given essentially the keys to the lands.
Ultimately many of us simply have to assume that Google's pagerank is the surest sign of the credibility of a link, but of course we know that can be gamed. And even had this site been on an appropriate domain with HTTPS, even that shows little given the completely lack of vigilance by most SSL cert firms now (partly at the behest of the tech community who find the cert process annoying and expensive).