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I am curious! Of course, you are right that my primary aim is to promote my software. But why do you think it is evil?

• vog 16y ago
  In its current form it isn't evil, it's just scary. I'll try to explain: It is socially accepted that companies may speak about their products in a onesided, strongly biased way, called "advertisement". This is in contrast to balanced, objective reports as expected from e.g. journalists and scientists. And it is also in contrast to honest, uninfluenced personal opinions as expected from e.g. friends and blogs. In return, those "advertisements" are expected to be explicitly labeled as such, or to be so exaggerated that they are obviously visible as such. That's how we try to ensure fairness. In a sense this is the case here, because the "blog entry" is shown under your website's domain. On the other hand, it is a user report of someone (i.e. you) who is using and testing your software, where one usually expects the honest and uninfluenced personal opinion of a user. It is okay as it is. But if you changed one detail, it wouldn't be okay anymore. (e.g. write about another website rather than your own, or put it into another blog at another domain, or remove the exaggeration in the title as well as the text.) So it is scary, because it is close to the border. But I think it is still on the "good" side of the border, not on the "evil side".
  • btilly 16y ago
    Huh. There are so many companies that spend so much time far, far beyond the bad side of the border that my expectations are entirely different than yours.
    • vog 16y ago
      Just because there are rogue firms doesn't mean we should lower our standards ... especially on a site like Hacker News which emphasizes quality of the submissions. However, I agree that this is complaining on a high level.