Gibson's personality isn't the thing in question here, the quotation above is specifically about his history in security. If the comment was about how he's a major asshole (just an example, I'm not saying that) in conferences or something like that, it would be an ad hominem, as that sort of information would not be relevant.
I disagree. He doesn't address the actual topic here at all. All he is doing is saying that Steve Gibson is a charlatan.
His history as a security professional has no bearing on the actual content here. We are all talking about an idea SQRL not Steve Gibson. If you said, "SQRL isn't worth my time because I don't trust Steve Gibson" that's fine, but the author made no note on SQRL at all, he just attacked Steve Gibson and let it be.
Sure there may be precedence to say that SQRL isn't worth your time, but Steve's credentials don't affect this idea at all. For all you know he may have been given the idea by a team of security researchers who wanted to see if the top post on Hacker News would be some bull shit argument about Steve Gibson. Obviously not the case, but come on let's talk about the freaking content here not the man.
The saying "throwing the baby out with the bath water" comes to mind. Let's look at SQRL and see if it actually makes any sense before we throw it all away.
Gibson's personality isn't the thing in question here, the quotation above is specifically about his history in security. If the comment was about how he's a major asshole (just an example, I'm not saying that) in conferences or something like that, it would be an ad hominem, as that sort of information would not be relevant.