3 ms·

Don't forget one of the side functions of hacker news is advertising for YC. There's a reason hacker news is news.ycombinator.com and not it's own separate doma

by c2 16y ago

Don't forget one of the side functions of hacker news is advertising for YC. There's a reason hacker news is news.ycombinator.com and not it's own separate domain.

pg 16y ago
Actually we originally intended to put the site at startupnews.com (when it was called Startup News), but the guy who controlled the name wouldn't let us have it. That turned out to be very fortunate, because if the site had been at startupnews.com it would have been much harder to change the focus.
- jackowayed 16y ago
  You've had really good luck with people refusing to give you names. (Viaweb was originally called Webgen, but another business was already using that name (and had the trademark, I think). They offered the other Webgen something absurd like 5% of the company to let them keep using that name. They said no, so they changed to Viaweb. I think Viaweb is a better name, and it almost certainly wouldn't have made them 5% more successful if they had been called Webgen.)
  - pg 16y ago
    Yes. More generally it's remarkable how often not getting something you wanted turns out to be for the better. Perhaps because improving your situation often also constrains your options, and we undervalue lack of constraint because we underestimate how much things could change in the future (or how mistaken we could be now).
    - jamesteow 16y ago
      I think of it as providing more options. When one doesn't get what they want, they are usually forced to look into other different options, which subsequently provides alternate futures that they possibly never predicted because they were so set on a future dependent on the 'something' that wasn't acquired.
robg 16y ago
Organic advertising seems more genuine, and powerful, than simple branding. I'm happy to provide the advertising if there is an interesting phenomenon in which X is an instance. But I wouldn't post something simply to advertise.

by c2 16y ago

Don't forget one of the side functions of hacker news is advertising for YC. There's a reason hacker news is news.ycombinator.com and not it's own separate domain.

pg 16y ago

Actually we originally intended to put the site at startupnews.com (when it was called Startup News), but the guy who controlled the name wouldn't let us have it. That turned out to be very fortunate, because if the site had been at startupnews.com it would have been much harder to change the focus.

jackowayed 16y ago
You've had really good luck with people refusing to give you names. (Viaweb was originally called Webgen, but another business was already using that name (and had the trademark, I think). They offered the other Webgen something absurd like 5% of the company to let them keep using that name. They said no, so they changed to Viaweb. I think Viaweb is a better name, and it almost certainly wouldn't have made them 5% more successful if they had been called Webgen.)
- pg 16y ago
  Yes. More generally it's remarkable how often not getting something you wanted turns out to be for the better. Perhaps because improving your situation often also constrains your options, and we undervalue lack of constraint because we underestimate how much things could change in the future (or how mistaken we could be now).
  - jamesteow 16y ago
    I think of it as providing more options. When one doesn't get what they want, they are usually forced to look into other different options, which subsequently provides alternate futures that they possibly never predicted because they were so set on a future dependent on the 'something' that wasn't acquired.

robg 16y ago

Organic advertising seems more genuine, and powerful, than simple branding. I'm happy to provide the advertising if there is an interesting phenomenon in which X is an instance. But I wouldn't post something simply to advertise.