4 ms·

Who is Jason Calacanis and why is this particular but of SEO notable? What is aspect of this should "gratify my intellectual curiosity?"

jcromartie 17y ago
Jason Calacanis is a guy who runs a sweatshop building a website you've probably never been to and never will because you're a smart person who doesn't fall for spam. He also has made a career out of being a professional asshole and making fun of "lifestyle businesses" that make products that people like and pay for. He thinks that if you're not a workaholic and want to enjoy your short time here on Earth then you shouldn't be working with startups.
- josefresco 17y ago
  Keep your personal opinions out of this debate, please. This is who Jason is for those who do not know why his 'bad behavior' is so watched and talked about: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jason_Calacanis http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jason_Calacanis
  - dasil003 17y ago
    We're hackers not journalists. If he feels Calacanis is scum he should be free to say so and not be held to some arbitrary standard of wiki-objectivity. It's certainly a lot more truthy than most of the horseshit that Calacanis drops around here whenever the subject of Mahalo comes up.
  - Perceval 17y ago
    I think it's reprehensible that parent has been downvoted. Ad hominem is ad hominem, no matter how deserving we think the target might be. Great-grandparent poster asked a question, ostensibly seeking an informative answer. What they got was grand-parent's uninformative tirade. While it certainly represents how people feel about Calcanis, it does not in any way answer great-grandparent's question, it is not informative, and it undermines the norm of civil discourse that we should expect on HN. Refresher: http://www.paulgraham.com/disagree.html http://www.paulgraham.com/disagree.html
    - scott_s 17y ago
      Ad hominem is not a synonym for insult. It is used exclusively for when someone attacks the speaker, and not the speaker's arguments. In this case, there were no arguments. The question was "Who is X?" Someone answered who X is. That answer was harsh, but also consistent with everything that I have seen. I agree its civility is borderline. But it's not an ad hominem attack because no argument was being made.
dschobel 17y ago
I don't particularly care about Calacanis (sorry Jason) but I'd say gaming Google this thoroughly is pretty newsworthy. Or at least it was the first three times we read about it.
- SwellJoe 17y ago
  What's amazing, to me, is that we're still reading about it several months into the story. Mahalo is a known black hat spam site, with despicable tactics, and Google continues to apologize on Calacanis' behalf and send traffic to Mahalo. I think that's actually the interesting part of the story: How Calacanis has snowed so many smart and decent people into doing his bidding.
  - froo 17y ago
    I'm only speculating (which is dubious at best) but there are 2 probable reasons why Calacanis continues to get away with it. 1) Sequoia funded both Mahalo and Google, so there's probably some leeway granted to Mahalo in that respect or (my personal favourite) 2) People can get away with a lot more if they're in the public eye and are loud about it. Think OJ Simpson... Calacanis is definitely one that shouts a lot louder than most to get his point across.
tptacek 17y ago
He's allegedly building a business on scraping sites and re-hosting their content to exploit long-tail search. SEO is in general germane to Hacker News. What Google does (or does not do) to deal with Mahalo will be relevant to many YC-style startups.

jcromartie 17y ago

Jason Calacanis is a guy who runs a sweatshop building a website you've probably never been to and never will because you're a smart person who doesn't fall for spam. He also has made a career out of being a professional asshole and making fun of "lifestyle businesses" that make products that people like and pay for. He thinks that if you're not a workaholic and want to enjoy your short time here on Earth then you shouldn't be working with startups.

josefresco 17y ago
Keep your personal opinions out of this debate, please. This is who Jason is for those who do not know why his 'bad behavior' is so watched and talked about: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jason_Calacanis http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jason_Calacanis
- dasil003 17y ago
  We're hackers not journalists. If he feels Calacanis is scum he should be free to say so and not be held to some arbitrary standard of wiki-objectivity. It's certainly a lot more truthy than most of the horseshit that Calacanis drops around here whenever the subject of Mahalo comes up.
- Perceval 17y ago
  I think it's reprehensible that parent has been downvoted. Ad hominem is ad hominem, no matter how deserving we think the target might be. Great-grandparent poster asked a question, ostensibly seeking an informative answer. What they got was grand-parent's uninformative tirade. While it certainly represents how people feel about Calcanis, it does not in any way answer great-grandparent's question, it is not informative, and it undermines the norm of civil discourse that we should expect on HN. Refresher: http://www.paulgraham.com/disagree.html http://www.paulgraham.com/disagree.html
  - scott_s 17y ago
    Ad hominem is not a synonym for insult. It is used exclusively for when someone attacks the speaker, and not the speaker's arguments. In this case, there were no arguments. The question was "Who is X?" Someone answered who X is. That answer was harsh, but also consistent with everything that I have seen. I agree its civility is borderline. But it's not an ad hominem attack because no argument was being made.

dschobel 17y ago

I don't particularly care about Calacanis (sorry Jason) but I'd say gaming Google this thoroughly is pretty newsworthy. Or at least it was the first three times we read about it.

SwellJoe 17y ago
What's amazing, to me, is that we're still reading about it several months into the story. Mahalo is a known black hat spam site, with despicable tactics, and Google continues to apologize on Calacanis' behalf and send traffic to Mahalo. I think that's actually the interesting part of the story: How Calacanis has snowed so many smart and decent people into doing his bidding.
- froo 17y ago
  I'm only speculating (which is dubious at best) but there are 2 probable reasons why Calacanis continues to get away with it. 1) Sequoia funded both Mahalo and Google, so there's probably some leeway granted to Mahalo in that respect or (my personal favourite) 2) People can get away with a lot more if they're in the public eye and are loud about it. Think OJ Simpson... Calacanis is definitely one that shouts a lot louder than most to get his point across.

tptacek 17y ago

He's allegedly building a business on scraping sites and re-hosting their content to exploit long-tail search. SEO is in general germane to Hacker News. What Google does (or does not do) to deal with Mahalo will be relevant to many YC-style startups.