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Is is odd that this is just an answer copied from Quora? I wonder if Quora actively tries to syndicate answers for backlinks? Maybe Mellissa O'Brian sent this

Is is odd that this is just an answer copied from Quora? I wonder if Quora actively tries to syndicate answers for backlinks? Maybe Mellissa O'Brian sent this to the Editors at Inc to see if they would run it? In either case I'm curious how this article came to be published. EDIT: I see now that Quora has an author profile of syndicated content, which answers my question. http://www.inc.com/author/quora http://www.inc.com/author/quora

emsy 10y ago
Also, the article was written by a "mindfulness teacher" which should raise the question of the article's objectivity. How was this upvoted?
- thesagan 10y ago
  I think there may be growing pressure to game Hacker News. I've been seeing (anecdotally) increasing odd activity in early morning hours (EST) linked with some funny account activity, etc. Seems most potential spam gets caught and flagged pretty quick, though. It's interesting browsing HN with the "showdead" option activated every now and then.
  - etblg 10y ago
    I've been more confused about the recent trend in just posting wikipedia articles on random subjects. No one in the comments seems to ever have a problem with it either.
    - GuiA 10y ago
      What's confusing about it? They're usually articles about fairly niche, but HN relevant, ideas/subjects.
    - johnchristopher 10y ago
      I sometimes can spot why: it happens that there is a 'big' thread going on on HN and sometimes a Wikipedia article about one of the aspect of the thread or an argument in it is posted. I have also seen two articles on the front page that seemed to be part of the same discussion. Eg: an article about Tokyo gentrification would trigger a discussion about waste management in big cities and then Wikipedia articles about Japanese sewers and some aspects of Japanese culture would be posted.
    - pessimizer 10y ago
      I've been here at least 5 years, and that's always been done. Often resulted in some great comment pages.
- ghufran_syed 10y ago
  I thought exactly the same thing, but there is a link to the scientific American article [1] that in turn links to the original research [2] [1] https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/a-wandering-mind-is-an-un/ https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/a-wandering-mind-... [2] http://science.sciencemag.org/content/330/6006/932 http://science.sciencemag.org/content/330/6006/932 Going through the links, this article from the IEEE signal processing magazine looked interesting: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2944261/?tool=pubmed#__ffn_sectitle https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2944261/?tool=p...

emsy 10y ago

Also, the article was written by a "mindfulness teacher" which should raise the question of the article's objectivity. How was this upvoted?

thesagan 10y ago
I think there may be growing pressure to game Hacker News. I've been seeing (anecdotally) increasing odd activity in early morning hours (EST) linked with some funny account activity, etc. Seems most potential spam gets caught and flagged pretty quick, though. It's interesting browsing HN with the "showdead" option activated every now and then.
- etblg 10y ago
  I've been more confused about the recent trend in just posting wikipedia articles on random subjects. No one in the comments seems to ever have a problem with it either.
  - GuiA 10y ago
    What's confusing about it? They're usually articles about fairly niche, but HN relevant, ideas/subjects.
  - johnchristopher 10y ago
    I sometimes can spot why: it happens that there is a 'big' thread going on on HN and sometimes a Wikipedia article about one of the aspect of the thread or an argument in it is posted. I have also seen two articles on the front page that seemed to be part of the same discussion. Eg: an article about Tokyo gentrification would trigger a discussion about waste management in big cities and then Wikipedia articles about Japanese sewers and some aspects of Japanese culture would be posted.
  - pessimizer 10y ago
    I've been here at least 5 years, and that's always been done. Often resulted in some great comment pages.
ghufran_syed 10y ago
I thought exactly the same thing, but there is a link to the scientific American article [1] that in turn links to the original research [2] [1] https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/a-wandering-mind-is-an-un/ https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/a-wandering-mind-... [2] http://science.sciencemag.org/content/330/6006/932 http://science.sciencemag.org/content/330/6006/932 Going through the links, this article from the IEEE signal processing magazine looked interesting: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2944261/?tool=pubmed#__ffn_sectitle https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2944261/?tool=p...