6 ms·

This seems like guerilla marketing for refactoringui.com

by 1023bytes 8y ago

tsunamifury 8y ago
Agreed
dr-elmo 8y ago
my first thought when i saw the title lol
- jamiepenney 8y ago
  Same here. Clicked to check if it was posted by a new user account and it is. Colour me suspicious.
- rchaud 8y ago
  me too. The question is phrased in such a specific way ("Modern UI/UX") that predictable answers like Design of Everyday Things wouldn't fit. I'm saying this as someone who loved Steve Schoger's amazing Twitter moments with those UI micro-tips; I'm on the site's mailing list, so I was aware that the book had just been released.
- news_hacker 8y ago
  Same, ha. OP said what we were all thinking. That being said, I'm a big fan of the author's work, so no harm no foul and I'll look the other way.
enumjorge 8y ago
It does seem a little strange given that their book came out yesterday. Of course coincidences can always occur, but the OP’s profile is a bit odd. It’s a 9 day old account that has posted Ask HN questions every day, often multiple times a day.
- system2 8y ago
  Funny thing, even if their service is good, I will be suspicious and won't use them.
keithnz 8y ago
seems quite suspicious that a book that just came out is getting quite a few reccomendations when no one currently would have used it as the basis to build anything. looking at the twitter stream of tips from 2017, there's some good stuff there ( https://twitter.com/i/moments/994601867987619840 https://twitter.com/i/moments/994601867987619840 ) not sure that translates well to the book or not, and it seems quite pricey, especially if you only end up making use of a couple of the tips.
- stanmancan 8y ago
  I bought the book and read it the same day. Lots of tips that can be used moving forward. I personally think it’s worth the money; I know it will save me money when I can handle some UI issues myself that I would have hired a for designer before.
pureliquidhw 8y ago
Seeing a lot of healthy, regular accounts promoting it as well. I wonder if they gave it away for a comment on HN or something. Sad that I'm spending any time checking the legitimacy of this post and those posting in it. Thanks advert industry for making me so cynical.
- TeMPOraL 8y ago
  > Sad that I'm spending any time checking the legitimacy of this post and those posting in it. Thanks advert industry for making me so cynical. Yet another reason why I consider adverising to be a cancer on society. You have to be suspicious of everything.
  - stingraycharles 8y ago
    If advertising gets to the point of generating actual useful content, I like to think that's a net positive. I learned a lot from this discussion, and good content marketing actually provides a lot of information.
    - TeMPOraL 8y ago
      > I learned a lot from this discussion That spamming a board with book recommendations can generate an interesting discussion isn't an excuse for spamming a board. > and good content marketing actually provides a lot of information. Depending what you mean by "good content marketing". If you mean companies paying people to share their professional knowledge, no strings attached, and writing this off as a "marketing expense", sure it can be good, but that's because it's a form of UBI for the people sharing their knowledge. As for most of the things explicitly created as "content marketing", it's mostly garbage that's wasting your time. It's only meant to give you some tidbits to hook you and position you to further monetization efforts - and the content rarely does anything beyond that. Consider that every time you read a content marketing piece, you could have read a honest article instead, were it not pushed down in SERP by content marketing. Also, I've worked with people doing content marketing professionally. I wouldn't trust a word from their work. It's not just waste of time, you're probably actively hurting your knowledge.
InitialLastName 8y ago
Yeah the suspicious number of identical comments suggesting it (along with something like "I think these guys just released this today) is... suspicious. It's cool, though, how a guerrilla marketing post like this still has the substantive discussion at the top rather than advertising spam.
- TeMPOraL 8y ago
  > It's cool, though, how a guerrilla marketing post like this still has the substantive discussion at the top rather than advertising spam. This is what I love about HN. Comment threads are usually much more interesting than the discussed article, regardless of that article's quality.
nathan_f77 8y ago
Haha I actually opened this thread intending to post it. It looks really good so I'm thinking about buying it.
- InitialLastName 8y ago
  You were going to post it and suggest others pay for it without actually having read it? The marketing must be working on you, if you're already convinced it's an answer to OP's question.
  - nathan_f77 8y ago
    Haha well I was just going to suggest that people take a look at it, because I saw it recently. It does look very good
- michaelmrose 8y ago
  Beginning a post with haha is off putting and awkward. Can you imagine starting a response in real life by randomly inserting laughter?
  - nikanj 8y ago
    Have you ever been to the southern parts of the US? A lot of sentences start with ”Hehe, well...” down there.
  - nathan_f77 8y ago
    Yes, I often laugh in real life when something is funny. It's quite normal to start a reply with "Haha" on the internet, so I won't apologize for that, and I'm going to keep doing it in the future.
Raymonf 8y ago
It could be that the OP was just inspired to ask about (other) books by the book's release.
adamwathan 8y ago
Author of that book here, I swear to god had nothing to do with this thread, just stumbled upon it myself perusing HN. Wish I could prove it somehow :(
- dang 8y ago
  I believe you. I looked in the logs and saw no evidence of manipulation. Most likely this submission was inspired by the thread yesterday (https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18655224 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18655224). The OP commented three times in that one.
flaque 8y ago
Admittedly you're the one talking about it

This seems like guerilla marketing for refactoringui.com

tsunamifury 8y ago

Agreed

dr-elmo 8y ago

my first thought when i saw the title lol

jamiepenney 8y ago
Same here. Clicked to check if it was posted by a new user account and it is. Colour me suspicious.
rchaud 8y ago
me too. The question is phrased in such a specific way ("Modern UI/UX") that predictable answers like Design of Everyday Things wouldn't fit. I'm saying this as someone who loved Steve Schoger's amazing Twitter moments with those UI micro-tips; I'm on the site's mailing list, so I was aware that the book had just been released.
news_hacker 8y ago
Same, ha. OP said what we were all thinking. That being said, I'm a big fan of the author's work, so no harm no foul and I'll look the other way.

enumjorge 8y ago

It does seem a little strange given that their book came out yesterday. Of course coincidences can always occur, but the OP’s profile is a bit odd. It’s a 9 day old account that has posted Ask HN questions every day, often multiple times a day.

system2 8y ago
Funny thing, even if their service is good, I will be suspicious and won't use them.

keithnz 8y ago

seems quite suspicious that a book that just came out is getting quite a few reccomendations when no one currently would have used it as the basis to build anything. looking at the twitter stream of tips from 2017, there's some good stuff there ( https://twitter.com/i/moments/994601867987619840 https://twitter.com/i/moments/994601867987619840 ) not sure that translates well to the book or not, and it seems quite pricey, especially if you only end up making use of a couple of the tips.

stanmancan 8y ago
I bought the book and read it the same day. Lots of tips that can be used moving forward. I personally think it’s worth the money; I know it will save me money when I can handle some UI issues myself that I would have hired a for designer before.

pureliquidhw 8y ago

Seeing a lot of healthy, regular accounts promoting it as well. I wonder if they gave it away for a comment on HN or something. Sad that I'm spending any time checking the legitimacy of this post and those posting in it. Thanks advert industry for making me so cynical.

TeMPOraL 8y ago
> Sad that I'm spending any time checking the legitimacy of this post and those posting in it. Thanks advert industry for making me so cynical. Yet another reason why I consider adverising to be a cancer on society. You have to be suspicious of everything.
- stingraycharles 8y ago
  If advertising gets to the point of generating actual useful content, I like to think that's a net positive. I learned a lot from this discussion, and good content marketing actually provides a lot of information.
  - TeMPOraL 8y ago
    > I learned a lot from this discussion That spamming a board with book recommendations can generate an interesting discussion isn't an excuse for spamming a board. > and good content marketing actually provides a lot of information. Depending what you mean by "good content marketing". If you mean companies paying people to share their professional knowledge, no strings attached, and writing this off as a "marketing expense", sure it can be good, but that's because it's a form of UBI for the people sharing their knowledge. As for most of the things explicitly created as "content marketing", it's mostly garbage that's wasting your time. It's only meant to give you some tidbits to hook you and position you to further monetization efforts - and the content rarely does anything beyond that. Consider that every time you read a content marketing piece, you could have read a honest article instead, were it not pushed down in SERP by content marketing. Also, I've worked with people doing content marketing professionally. I wouldn't trust a word from their work. It's not just waste of time, you're probably actively hurting your knowledge.

InitialLastName 8y ago

Yeah the suspicious number of identical comments suggesting it (along with something like "I think these guys just released this today) is... suspicious. It's cool, though, how a guerrilla marketing post like this still has the substantive discussion at the top rather than advertising spam.

TeMPOraL 8y ago
> It's cool, though, how a guerrilla marketing post like this still has the substantive discussion at the top rather than advertising spam. This is what I love about HN. Comment threads are usually much more interesting than the discussed article, regardless of that article's quality.

nathan_f77 8y ago

Haha I actually opened this thread intending to post it. It looks really good so I'm thinking about buying it.

InitialLastName 8y ago
You were going to post it and suggest others pay for it without actually having read it? The marketing must be working on you, if you're already convinced it's an answer to OP's question.
- nathan_f77 8y ago
  Haha well I was just going to suggest that people take a look at it, because I saw it recently. It does look very good
michaelmrose 8y ago
Beginning a post with haha is off putting and awkward. Can you imagine starting a response in real life by randomly inserting laughter?
- nikanj 8y ago
  Have you ever been to the southern parts of the US? A lot of sentences start with ”Hehe, well...” down there.
- nathan_f77 8y ago
  Yes, I often laugh in real life when something is funny. It's quite normal to start a reply with "Haha" on the internet, so I won't apologize for that, and I'm going to keep doing it in the future.

Raymonf 8y ago

It could be that the OP was just inspired to ask about (other) books by the book's release.

adamwathan 8y ago

Author of that book here, I swear to god had nothing to do with this thread, just stumbled upon it myself perusing HN. Wish I could prove it somehow :(

dang 8y ago
I believe you. I looked in the logs and saw no evidence of manipulation. Most likely this submission was inspired by the thread yesterday (https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18655224 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18655224). The OP commented three times in that one.

flaque 8y ago

Admittedly you're the one talking about it