10 ms·

People definitely want to watch Uber burn as some have forever, but something seems to have shifted. I've been seeing facebook ads for Uber engineering for the

People definitely want to watch Uber burn as some have forever, but something seems to have shifted. I've been seeing facebook ads for Uber engineering for the last 1-2 years but recently looking at the comments on them they're 100% negative. A sampling: "This is one of those times when steering into the skid might have been the wrong move." "I think Uber needs to post an ad for a new President more than a Senior Software Engineer..." "How about UberEatsDicks? Can we work on that product together? It sounds pretty good for you guys. Right up your alley." "Facebook must hate me to suggest this post. LOL" "Haha, no thanks. http://www.theverge.com/.../14664474/uber-sexism-allegations http://www.theverge.com/.../14664474/uber-sexism-allegations ."

throwaway91111 10y ago
Barely related, but Facebook seems like a TERRIBLE place to advertise for hiring.
- personjerry 10y ago
  Why?
  - MichaelBurge 10y ago
    My guess: You're targeting people who waste their precious time on Facebook. And if they don't value their own time, they probably won't value yours either.
    - seattle_spring 10y ago
      That's incredibly arrogant, to say the least.
  - throwaway91111 10y ago
    Who clicks on ads? Who goes to facebook to look for jobs? Why would you pay per click for a job posting? The cynical part of me suspects this will enable monocultures and discrimination. Just doesn't make sense.
    - bigtimeidiot 10y ago
      >Who clicks on ads? Not me, or most people here. Yet Google and Facebook are things.
      - throwaway91111 10y ago
        Ok, more to the point, do they really expect prospective, quality engineers to click on facebook ads? Especially for someone with the brand recognition (for better or worse) of uber.
        nommm-nommm 10y ago
        If it looked legitimate, I'd click...
    - HenryBemis 10y ago
      Logically no one. People go to LinkedIn and other work-related sites. BUT facebook being who they are and tracking you in (almost) each and every website on the planet (that silly like/share button) they "know" that you are job hunting and leverage on that knowledge.
      - throwaway91111 10y ago
        ...if you're already signed up and logged in.
- enjo 10y ago
  I belong to a networking group for CTO's. Pretty much everyone has reported that Facebook ads are basically the best way to find developers right now. Extremely cost effective with lots of excellent results. I have some concerns about the effect they have on diversity (given how tightly you can target them). But the results seems to be really good.
  - arcticfox 10y ago
    That's...bizarre. In past surveys over 80% of HN users report using adblock. Anecdotally that's very true of devs I know personally, and of the rest, there are 0% I'd want to hire. I'm very curious who these developers are that (1) let Facebook show them ads and (2) god forbid, actually click on them
    - ch4ch4 10y ago
      Probably mobile users. That's the only time I ever browse without adblock and, yes, I have actually clicked on a hiring ad, which led to my current job.
      - executesorder66 10y ago
        If you use Firefox on mobile you can use uBlock Origin to block ads on your phone.
stale2002 10y ago
I think the big change happened now is because for years Uber has been doing legally dubious things, that were morally defensible from certain perspectives. IE, They mostly screwed over corrupt taxi monopolies. Similar to a sort of Tony Stark character, Uber was an asshole, but they were OUR asshole. Fighting for insanely low customer prices and fighting against a bigger enemy, which is the terrible existing taxi industry. The stuff that has happened recently is about having an awful company/engineering culture, and isn't in any way morally defensible.
- paulcole 10y ago
  >Uber was an asshole, but they were OUR asshole. In other words, they played us like fiddles.
  - ejlangev 10y ago
    I think that's exactly right. A lot of people were caught up by the PR and convenience of calling a cab from their phone. Tech is full of endless praise of companies including Uber as if they could never do anything wrong. Most people never really stopped to think about the implications of how Uber worked, how it treated drivers, and how it responded to various issues (sexual assault during rides for example). Now there are widening cracks in that facade and people see through. Started for me when they updated the app to ask for location information 100% of the time a few months back. I remember seeing the notification and thinking to myself "do I really trust Uber with all my location data?" and realizing the answer was no. They made the app much more frustrating to use if you didn't provide that level of location so I deleted it shortly after.
    - arebop 10y ago
      > Most people never really stopped to think about the implications You seem to suggest that Uber's toxic culture gave them a business advantage. Like, riders got some benefit that a conscientious person ought to have guessed was derived from the suffering of others. I think what really happened is that Uber successfully assailed a bunch of stodgy monopolies just by taking a modern approach to dispatching. Then others saw the opportunity and there was a goldrush. Today Uber and everyone else are squeezing the drivers (same is true for all the "Uber of X" sharing economy variants). But the crappy backoffice culture surely didn't make it more convenient or cheap to get a ride.
lefstathiou 10y ago
I think the people who wake up every day trolling / hating Uber are not the people riding it. I also sense people are getting increasingly immune to the negative PR because it is becoming clear that someone in media has an axe to grind. Living in NYC, I've been asking friends and friends of friends (it makes for good social fodder) about whether or not they plan to change and I have yet to hear anyone who actually cares and has changed their behavior (ie shifted to cabs or lyft). Not a statistically significant sample size but NYC is as liberal as it gets when it comes to issues like these.
- twinkletwinkle 10y ago
  As they say, money talks, and Uber has a bunch of VC money to do its talking.
  - nebabyte 10y ago
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eFiI3nvcwTA#t=2m18s https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eFiI3nvcwTA#t=2m18s
- foobarian 10y ago
  There is the Uber customers, and then there is the software engineers who might consider working for Uber. I can tell you that after the recent revelations, before which I had no idea about their internal culture, I would absolutely not want to. This may or may not be a problem for their hiring pipeline.
- kbos87 10y ago
  Really? I've talked to multiple Lyft drivers who've told me they recently switched over to Lyft because they've noticed the volume of fares go down driving for Uber. Also, anecdotally, I can say that in my group of friends a lot of people have switched.
  - taysic 10y ago
    Anecdotally I just switched. The fares were always the tiniest bit cheaper at Uber. Recently it was the sexual harassment + the video of Travis yelling at a driver that made me switch.
draw_down 10y ago
I guess I feel like there is a larger problem in all than that some people left mean comments?
nebabyte 10y ago
> People definitely want to watch Uber burn as some have forever, but something seems to have shifted Is it really as dramatic as all that? Just seems like ragging on uber is 'a viral topic' right now. Likely thanks to the couple of articles this past while that've no doubt made the rounds on FB/etc. Once it's "old hat" people will go back to business as usual, albeit uber's steadily increasing prices and myriad other issues mean people'll always have that negative aftertaste (and possibly switch to other services or cutting back on ridesharing for a while) Waves of hate for companies are nothing new; not saying Uber's not going to have enduring hate too but I don't think this is anything "different" than what I'd've expected. Just look at United right now.
- TeMPOraL 10y ago
  I for one am waiting for Uber to finally die, and have been for the past 3 years or so. This is a shitty company led by sociopaths, that has no place in a modern, civilized society. It leaves bad example to follow for future entrepreneurs. Why Uber is still alive is something that makes me worry about what chances the rule of law has vs. VC money.

throwaway91111 10y ago

Barely related, but Facebook seems like a TERRIBLE place to advertise for hiring.

personjerry 10y ago
Why?
- MichaelBurge 10y ago
  My guess: You're targeting people who waste their precious time on Facebook. And if they don't value their own time, they probably won't value yours either.
  - seattle_spring 10y ago
    That's incredibly arrogant, to say the least.
- throwaway91111 10y ago
  Who clicks on ads? Who goes to facebook to look for jobs? Why would you pay per click for a job posting? The cynical part of me suspects this will enable monocultures and discrimination. Just doesn't make sense.
  - bigtimeidiot 10y ago
    >Who clicks on ads? Not me, or most people here. Yet Google and Facebook are things.
    - throwaway91111 10y ago
      Ok, more to the point, do they really expect prospective, quality engineers to click on facebook ads? Especially for someone with the brand recognition (for better or worse) of uber.
      - nommm-nommm 10y ago
        If it looked legitimate, I'd click...
  - HenryBemis 10y ago
    Logically no one. People go to LinkedIn and other work-related sites. BUT facebook being who they are and tracking you in (almost) each and every website on the planet (that silly like/share button) they "know" that you are job hunting and leverage on that knowledge.
    - throwaway91111 10y ago
      ...if you're already signed up and logged in.
enjo 10y ago
I belong to a networking group for CTO's. Pretty much everyone has reported that Facebook ads are basically the best way to find developers right now. Extremely cost effective with lots of excellent results. I have some concerns about the effect they have on diversity (given how tightly you can target them). But the results seems to be really good.
- arcticfox 10y ago
  That's...bizarre. In past surveys over 80% of HN users report using adblock. Anecdotally that's very true of devs I know personally, and of the rest, there are 0% I'd want to hire. I'm very curious who these developers are that (1) let Facebook show them ads and (2) god forbid, actually click on them
  - ch4ch4 10y ago
    Probably mobile users. That's the only time I ever browse without adblock and, yes, I have actually clicked on a hiring ad, which led to my current job.
    - executesorder66 10y ago
      If you use Firefox on mobile you can use uBlock Origin to block ads on your phone.

stale2002 10y ago

I think the big change happened now is because for years Uber has been doing legally dubious things, that were morally defensible from certain perspectives. IE, They mostly screwed over corrupt taxi monopolies. Similar to a sort of Tony Stark character, Uber was an asshole, but they were OUR asshole. Fighting for insanely low customer prices and fighting against a bigger enemy, which is the terrible existing taxi industry. The stuff that has happened recently is about having an awful company/engineering culture, and isn't in any way morally defensible.

paulcole 10y ago
>Uber was an asshole, but they were OUR asshole. In other words, they played us like fiddles.
- ejlangev 10y ago
  I think that's exactly right. A lot of people were caught up by the PR and convenience of calling a cab from their phone. Tech is full of endless praise of companies including Uber as if they could never do anything wrong. Most people never really stopped to think about the implications of how Uber worked, how it treated drivers, and how it responded to various issues (sexual assault during rides for example). Now there are widening cracks in that facade and people see through. Started for me when they updated the app to ask for location information 100% of the time a few months back. I remember seeing the notification and thinking to myself "do I really trust Uber with all my location data?" and realizing the answer was no. They made the app much more frustrating to use if you didn't provide that level of location so I deleted it shortly after.
  - arebop 10y ago
    > Most people never really stopped to think about the implications You seem to suggest that Uber's toxic culture gave them a business advantage. Like, riders got some benefit that a conscientious person ought to have guessed was derived from the suffering of others. I think what really happened is that Uber successfully assailed a bunch of stodgy monopolies just by taking a modern approach to dispatching. Then others saw the opportunity and there was a goldrush. Today Uber and everyone else are squeezing the drivers (same is true for all the "Uber of X" sharing economy variants). But the crappy backoffice culture surely didn't make it more convenient or cheap to get a ride.

lefstathiou 10y ago

I think the people who wake up every day trolling / hating Uber are not the people riding it. I also sense people are getting increasingly immune to the negative PR because it is becoming clear that someone in media has an axe to grind. Living in NYC, I've been asking friends and friends of friends (it makes for good social fodder) about whether or not they plan to change and I have yet to hear anyone who actually cares and has changed their behavior (ie shifted to cabs or lyft). Not a statistically significant sample size but NYC is as liberal as it gets when it comes to issues like these.

twinkletwinkle 10y ago
As they say, money talks, and Uber has a bunch of VC money to do its talking.
- nebabyte 10y ago
  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eFiI3nvcwTA#t=2m18s https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eFiI3nvcwTA#t=2m18s
foobarian 10y ago
There is the Uber customers, and then there is the software engineers who might consider working for Uber. I can tell you that after the recent revelations, before which I had no idea about their internal culture, I would absolutely not want to. This may or may not be a problem for their hiring pipeline.
kbos87 10y ago
Really? I've talked to multiple Lyft drivers who've told me they recently switched over to Lyft because they've noticed the volume of fares go down driving for Uber. Also, anecdotally, I can say that in my group of friends a lot of people have switched.
- taysic 10y ago
  Anecdotally I just switched. The fares were always the tiniest bit cheaper at Uber. Recently it was the sexual harassment + the video of Travis yelling at a driver that made me switch.

draw_down 10y ago

I guess I feel like there is a larger problem in all than that some people left mean comments?

nebabyte 10y ago

> People definitely want to watch Uber burn as some have forever, but something seems to have shifted Is it really as dramatic as all that? Just seems like ragging on uber is 'a viral topic' right now. Likely thanks to the couple of articles this past while that've no doubt made the rounds on FB/etc. Once it's "old hat" people will go back to business as usual, albeit uber's steadily increasing prices and myriad other issues mean people'll always have that negative aftertaste (and possibly switch to other services or cutting back on ridesharing for a while) Waves of hate for companies are nothing new; not saying Uber's not going to have enduring hate too but I don't think this is anything "different" than what I'd've expected. Just look at United right now.

TeMPOraL 10y ago
I for one am waiting for Uber to finally die, and have been for the past 3 years or so. This is a shitty company led by sociopaths, that has no place in a modern, civilized society. It leaves bad example to follow for future entrepreneurs. Why Uber is still alive is something that makes me worry about what chances the rule of law has vs. VC money.