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My experience as a solo founder applying to YCF with just an idea on HackerNews

2 points by abhi3 11y ago

minimaxir 11y ago
Copy/Pasting my response from Reddit: > They did polarize opinion but overall I think people liked them I was one of the people who called you out for your "growth hacking," and this assessment is blatantly wrong. For one thing, your original Apply HN submission had a linkbait title, which you admitted to (https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11535928 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11535928). What you did later to polarize opinion was to include an unnecessary link to your Apply HN submission to each comment you made, which is Spam in HN's rulebook. On the first comment you made (https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11536407 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11536407) (flagkilled), 3/3 of the comments called you out as spamming. On the second comment you made (https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11537017 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11537017), half the comments still told you to cut it out with the advertisements. On the third comment you made (https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11537818 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11537818) which made it obvious you were ignoring the comments on the first two comments, I stepped in and told you were breaking HN rules, but you still did not edit out the advertising URL. A HN moderator eventually killed your comment. These shenanigans most likely disqualified you from winning the YC fellowship, which counteracts your "growth hacking is good" sentiment. The results do not justify disregarding community sentiment. --- OP replied on Reddit: > Hey man you can't see the upvotes but I can, combined the 3 comments received more than 100 upvotes. People complaining = 10. > If it was against the rules I would have been banned, it was not. Anyway if you are suggesting I took advantage of a grey area to come up with a way to showcase my product, yes I did. When it was no longer gray I stopped. Community sentiment is subjective, even you admit half the people loved it but I have data to know it was way more than half. So sorry about your sentiments. I get your point but don't know why you care so much about it.
abhi3 11y ago
BTW one can find out the rankings of all ApplyHN applications by just upvotes here: http://www.thefinac.tk/applyhn/ http://www.thefinac.tk/applyhn/ (sort by rating) Pinboard is not a serious application so that can be ignored I guess
- idlewords 11y ago
  Not sure on what grounds you think you can ignore Pinboard. The people have spoken!
  - abhi3 11y ago
    Hahahaha, I'm sure a lot of people (including me) got a nice laugh from your troll. I suppose you are "too far along" for YC Fellowship anyway ;)

2 points by abhi3 11y ago

Copy/Pasting my response from Reddit: > They did polarize opinion but overall I think people liked them I was one of the people who called you out for your "growth hacking," and this assessment is blatantly wrong. For one thing, your original Apply HN submission had a linkbait title, which you admitted to (https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11535928 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11535928). What you did later to polarize opinion was to include an unnecessary link to your Apply HN submission to each comment you made, which is Spam in HN's rulebook. On the first comment you made (https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11536407 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11536407) (flagkilled), 3/3 of the comments called you out as spamming. On the second comment you made (https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11537017 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11537017), half the comments still told you to cut it out with the advertisements. On the third comment you made (https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11537818 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11537818) which made it obvious you were ignoring the comments on the first two comments, I stepped in and told you were breaking HN rules, but you still did not edit out the advertising URL. A HN moderator eventually killed your comment. These shenanigans most likely disqualified you from winning the YC fellowship, which counteracts your "growth hacking is good" sentiment. The results do not justify disregarding community sentiment. --- OP replied on Reddit: > Hey man you can't see the upvotes but I can, combined the 3 comments received more than 100 upvotes. People complaining = 10. > If it was against the rules I would have been banned, it was not. Anyway if you are suggesting I took advantage of a grey area to come up with a way to showcase my product, yes I did. When it was no longer gray I stopped. Community sentiment is subjective, even you admit half the people loved it but I have data to know it was way more than half. So sorry about your sentiments. I get your point but don't know why you care so much about it.

abhi3 11y ago

BTW one can find out the rankings of all ApplyHN applications by just upvotes here: http://www.thefinac.tk/applyhn/ http://www.thefinac.tk/applyhn/ (sort by rating) Pinboard is not a serious application so that can be ignored I guess

idlewords 11y ago
Not sure on what grounds you think you can ignore Pinboard. The people have spoken!
- abhi3 11y ago
  Hahahaha, I'm sure a lot of people (including me) got a nice laugh from your troll. I suppose you are "too far along" for YC Fellowship anyway ;)