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I don't feel that at all. If Musk is having an AMA on a topic, like the BFR, I feel that is better than an open ended AMA, since the signal to noise ratio will

I don't feel that at all. If Musk is having an AMA on a topic, like the BFR, I feel that is better than an open ended AMA, since the signal to noise ratio will be better and I can go there to read about exactly the topic I'm interested in. I'm not particularly interested, for example, in questions about Musk's divorce or dating habits. Perhaps they need to change the name of these on-topic AMAs, but Musk isn't selling BFR rockets to consumers, generally geeks are interested in SpaceX from a hobby interest point of view, and so the idea of marketing and brand promotion seems a little divorced from reality. SpaceX isn't going to increase their launch contracts by entertaining AMA questions. My guess is, Musk likes engaging people and talking about the cool shit he's working on.

QAPereo 9y ago
So a guy as driven as Musk isn’t doing this for PR, just... because he likes it? I’m sure it’s also totally unrelated to firing 1% of a 30k workforce?
- mikeash 9y ago
  Are you proposing that this AMA about SpaceX’s Mars plans is intended as a distraction from some firings at Tesla? That seems rather far fetched and doesn’t really make sense anyway.
- cromwellian 9y ago
  Many companies used to regularly RIF their bottom 1-2%, but I'm not sure why Tesla's firings has anything to do with r/spacex. When an AMA is held on Tesla, then I might be interested in that, but I'm interested in more technical details of upcoming SpaceX rockets. If NASA had an AMA about the Space Shuttle, do you want the thread polluted with questions about NASA's opinion on the F-35? Or on Obamacare? Is NASA "advertising"? Musk frequently engages people on Twitter. He's obviously a tech-nerd, and loves talking about rockets and mars, it's an obsession. No one would bet their money on an uneconomical plan to colonize Mars. He literally cried on 60 minutes when confronted with Aldrin's support of ULA. It's a pretty cheap shop to chalk this up to some advertising campaign, rather than personal ego. Advertising what? Buying seats on a BFR rocket?
  - QAPereo 9y ago
    No one would bet their money on an uneconomical plan to colonize Mars. He literally cried on 60 minutes when confronted with Aldrin's support of ULA. He hasnt, he’s betting money on rockets which are useful for highly lucrative activities, while talking aboutna currently far fetched vision of Martian colonization. Apparently though all it takes to disable the critical thinking of many is wanting to believe, and in your case, tears.
    - nickik 9y ago
      Yesm yes, you are so smart and all us sheep who don't understand anything. If you knew even the first thing about the Space industry you would know that these sorts of rockets are super high risk and even now the demand for such rockets is highly questioned even should they manage to build it. There are really not so many "highly lucrative activities" even if they manage to achieve technical breakthroughs on rocket designed. Also, the rocket and space ship very clearly are designed around Mars, every design choice is informed by that. If he had wanted to make the most possible profitable rocket to do 'highly lucrative activities' he would have build a different rocket.
      - QAPereo 9y ago
        Yesm yes, you are so smart and all us sheep who don't understand anything. ... if you knew even the first thing...
    - cromwellian 9y ago
      The Space industry isn't very profitable unless you get Cost+ government contracts. The margins are terrible. SpaceX's profit margins are either negative, zero, or razor thin. If Musk wanted high ROI, he wouldn't have bet on SpaceX. He's obviously doing it not because it's easy money, but because he's interested in space as a hobby. The first think he tried to do with his PayPal money was to buy an ICBM to fly a greenhouse to Mars. Does that sound like something that's a good investment? I don't think you're convincing very many people that Musk is doing this for advertising purposes. What's next, Musk gives a space talk to middle school students, and you accuse him of trying to recruit cheap future employees?
- wonder_bread 9y ago
  Definitely a provocative comment that might not be correct but I don't think it deserved to be down-voted. Just because he's Elon doesn't mean he doesn't play his own manipulation games
  - greglindahl 9y ago
    Hacker News: Your source for conspiracy theories
    - QAPereo 9y ago
      One man acting in his own best interest is a conspiracy now? Oooook...
na85 9y ago
It's great that you enjoy this advertising content, but there's simply no talking around the fact that moderator censorship breaks the AMA concept.
- dageshi 9y ago
  They are in r/space not r/iama different subs make their own rules, they don't have to conform to yours.
- simonh 9y ago
  Then I shall talk through, not around. The original purist concept yes, absolutely, but a lot of people actually prefer it this way. The world is big enough for both approaches to exist as they offer different things. Finally, what is wrong with honest informative advertising content on things people to want to know about? Is such a thing inherently bad? If so why?
dogma1138 9y ago
I think this has less to do about signal to noise and more to do with crowd control. BFR as a project is out of touch with the current affairs at Tesla and SpaceX which means that there is basically no negative sentiment that can be generated from asking questions about the topic or their answers. A general AMA however will likely touch about things like the failure to support Autopilot 2.0 hardware on schedule, Model 3 delivery delays, Falcon Heavy delays, and those are just the light stuff. One does have to wonder why is there an AMA on the only detached and "universally rosie" subject just as Tesla announced layoffs. While I don't think it was planned, I do have a strong suspicion that the AMA was intentionally focused and the mods were asked to enforce question rules (and looks like more strictly than usual even based on previous Musk AMAs).
- ProblemFactory 9y ago
  > AMA was intentionally focused and the mods were asked to enforce question rules I don't think the mods had to be even asked to do it. The AMA was posted in /r/space, and widely advertised in /r/spacex. There was a group effort to get technical BFR questions upvoted from /r/spacex members. I would guess that even without any outside influence, the mods and most voters did not care about Tesla questions - Tesla only matters to the extent of "does it help finance Mars plans" for them.
- greglindahl 9y ago
  Tesla is the #1 automobile brand in owner satisfaction and you think it's important to ask Elon about Autopilot 2.0 software being late in an AMA, which has a limited number of questions. Gotcha. Even if the AMA was about Tesla, that probably wouldn't make the list.
- mikeash 9y ago
  How does it make the slightest bit of sense that an AMA on a space forum would be intended as a deflection from firings at a totally different company in a different field? A bunch of space enthusiasts asking about Mars isn’t going to change public perception of Tesla in the slightest. Not everything is a vast PR conspiracy. You say you have a strong suspicion that it was intentionally focused. Did the fact that it says “about BFR” in the title give it away? Of course it’s focused.

QAPereo 9y ago

So a guy as driven as Musk isn’t doing this for PR, just... because he likes it? I’m sure it’s also totally unrelated to firing 1% of a 30k workforce?

mikeash 9y ago
Are you proposing that this AMA about SpaceX’s Mars plans is intended as a distraction from some firings at Tesla? That seems rather far fetched and doesn’t really make sense anyway.
cromwellian 9y ago
Many companies used to regularly RIF their bottom 1-2%, but I'm not sure why Tesla's firings has anything to do with r/spacex. When an AMA is held on Tesla, then I might be interested in that, but I'm interested in more technical details of upcoming SpaceX rockets. If NASA had an AMA about the Space Shuttle, do you want the thread polluted with questions about NASA's opinion on the F-35? Or on Obamacare? Is NASA "advertising"? Musk frequently engages people on Twitter. He's obviously a tech-nerd, and loves talking about rockets and mars, it's an obsession. No one would bet their money on an uneconomical plan to colonize Mars. He literally cried on 60 minutes when confronted with Aldrin's support of ULA. It's a pretty cheap shop to chalk this up to some advertising campaign, rather than personal ego. Advertising what? Buying seats on a BFR rocket?
- QAPereo 9y ago
  No one would bet their money on an uneconomical plan to colonize Mars. He literally cried on 60 minutes when confronted with Aldrin's support of ULA. He hasnt, he’s betting money on rockets which are useful for highly lucrative activities, while talking aboutna currently far fetched vision of Martian colonization. Apparently though all it takes to disable the critical thinking of many is wanting to believe, and in your case, tears.
  - nickik 9y ago
    Yesm yes, you are so smart and all us sheep who don't understand anything. If you knew even the first thing about the Space industry you would know that these sorts of rockets are super high risk and even now the demand for such rockets is highly questioned even should they manage to build it. There are really not so many "highly lucrative activities" even if they manage to achieve technical breakthroughs on rocket designed. Also, the rocket and space ship very clearly are designed around Mars, every design choice is informed by that. If he had wanted to make the most possible profitable rocket to do 'highly lucrative activities' he would have build a different rocket.
    - QAPereo 9y ago
      Yesm yes, you are so smart and all us sheep who don't understand anything. ... if you knew even the first thing...
  - cromwellian 9y ago
    The Space industry isn't very profitable unless you get Cost+ government contracts. The margins are terrible. SpaceX's profit margins are either negative, zero, or razor thin. If Musk wanted high ROI, he wouldn't have bet on SpaceX. He's obviously doing it not because it's easy money, but because he's interested in space as a hobby. The first think he tried to do with his PayPal money was to buy an ICBM to fly a greenhouse to Mars. Does that sound like something that's a good investment? I don't think you're convincing very many people that Musk is doing this for advertising purposes. What's next, Musk gives a space talk to middle school students, and you accuse him of trying to recruit cheap future employees?
wonder_bread 9y ago
Definitely a provocative comment that might not be correct but I don't think it deserved to be down-voted. Just because he's Elon doesn't mean he doesn't play his own manipulation games
- greglindahl 9y ago
  Hacker News: Your source for conspiracy theories
  - QAPereo 9y ago
    One man acting in his own best interest is a conspiracy now? Oooook...

na85 9y ago

It's great that you enjoy this advertising content, but there's simply no talking around the fact that moderator censorship breaks the AMA concept.

dageshi 9y ago
They are in r/space not r/iama different subs make their own rules, they don't have to conform to yours.
simonh 9y ago
Then I shall talk through, not around. The original purist concept yes, absolutely, but a lot of people actually prefer it this way. The world is big enough for both approaches to exist as they offer different things. Finally, what is wrong with honest informative advertising content on things people to want to know about? Is such a thing inherently bad? If so why?

dogma1138 9y ago

I think this has less to do about signal to noise and more to do with crowd control. BFR as a project is out of touch with the current affairs at Tesla and SpaceX which means that there is basically no negative sentiment that can be generated from asking questions about the topic or their answers. A general AMA however will likely touch about things like the failure to support Autopilot 2.0 hardware on schedule, Model 3 delivery delays, Falcon Heavy delays, and those are just the light stuff. One does have to wonder why is there an AMA on the only detached and "universally rosie" subject just as Tesla announced layoffs. While I don't think it was planned, I do have a strong suspicion that the AMA was intentionally focused and the mods were asked to enforce question rules (and looks like more strictly than usual even based on previous Musk AMAs).

ProblemFactory 9y ago
> AMA was intentionally focused and the mods were asked to enforce question rules I don't think the mods had to be even asked to do it. The AMA was posted in /r/space, and widely advertised in /r/spacex. There was a group effort to get technical BFR questions upvoted from /r/spacex members. I would guess that even without any outside influence, the mods and most voters did not care about Tesla questions - Tesla only matters to the extent of "does it help finance Mars plans" for them.
greglindahl 9y ago
Tesla is the #1 automobile brand in owner satisfaction and you think it's important to ask Elon about Autopilot 2.0 software being late in an AMA, which has a limited number of questions. Gotcha. Even if the AMA was about Tesla, that probably wouldn't make the list.
mikeash 9y ago
How does it make the slightest bit of sense that an AMA on a space forum would be intended as a deflection from firings at a totally different company in a different field? A bunch of space enthusiasts asking about Mars isn’t going to change public perception of Tesla in the slightest. Not everything is a vast PR conspiracy. You say you have a strong suspicion that it was intentionally focused. Did the fact that it says “about BFR” in the title give it away? Of course it’s focused.