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Here's something for HN'ers to ponder. Jeff Bezos published the reply to Mr Pecker's sex photos on Twitter[1] and Medium[2] instead of his own platform. (He do

by jasode 7y ago

Here's something for HN'ers to ponder. Jeff Bezos published the reply to Mr Pecker's sex photos on Twitter[1] and Medium[2] instead of his own platform. (He does own his own domain "jeffbezos.com" as of 2011). I'd love to hear HN readers' theories on why he used someone else's platform. Let's lay out the factors we know that would favor JB using his own platform: + Obviously, JB is not a technology or internet luddite. He earned degrees in electrical engineering and computer science from Princeton University. He's probably seen HTML before so he could bang out a static page as a url such as "www.jeffbezos.com/MyReplyToMrPecker.htm" or use any web authoring tool. + But, he's also a busy guy because he runs Amazon so he doesn't have the time to do that himself. Therefore, he could simply pay anybody with sysadmin skills to put the text on his website. He's worth ~$160 billion so he can afford the staff. He also can afford the bandwidth costs to avoid the 404 errors that "alwaysownyourplatform.com" is having from the HN-hug-of-death. So we are left with 2 possibilities: 1. Jeff Bezos is actually stupid and ignorant about the dangers of platforms like Medium and he needs to be lectured by Sean Blanda (author of "alwaysownyourplatform.com") or 2. He already understands Sean Blanda's point and in fact can display the ultimate flex of "I already own my own platforms which includes AWS and the Washington Post." And yet, JB posted on Twitter & Medium. He didn't even bother with the POSSE[3] advice. Why? Does JB's reasons possibly overlap with others' reasons for using someone else's platform? [1] https://twitter.com/JeffBezos/status/1093643321732464646 https://twitter.com/JeffBezos/status/1093643321732464646 [2] https://medium.com/@jeffreypbezos/no-thank-you-mr-pecker-146e3922310f https://medium.com/@jeffreypbezos/no-thank-you-mr-pecker-146... [3] https://indieweb.org/POSSE https://indieweb.org/POSSE

sdinsn 7y ago
You are overthinking this. He used Twitter and Medium because people follow him on those platforms.
- jasode 7y ago
  >He used Twitter and Medium because people follow him on those platforms. Of course, yes. That's where the audience is. I'm pretty sure we all know that. (A small nitpick -- Bezos actually didn't have any followers on Medium before his first and only Medium post[1]. Therefore, he could have directed the Twitter link to a blog his own domain "jeffbezos.com" but he chose not to do that.) >You are overthinking this. Yes I am! And I want others to overthink it too. The point of my comment is to dissect the topic of this thread "Always Own Your Own Platform" -- by using a prominent counterexample. JB didn't follow Sean Blanda's advice[2]. He also didn't adhere to the POSSE guideline. Why? ("Because JB's followers are there.") Let's try to break the infinite loop of nonproductive discourse. _Why_ are JB's followers on Twitter? Even if they're on Twitter, why does JB even _care_ about that? He could have just followed Sean Blanda's advice and posted to "jeffbezos.com" -- but he did not. Let's overthink the reasons why Blanda's advice was not followed. [1] only one Medium article by JB: https://medium.com/@jeffreypbezos https://medium.com/@jeffreypbezos [2] https://twitter.com/SeanBlanda/status/1134076887821631488 https://twitter.com/SeanBlanda/status/1134076887821631488
  - Bakary 7y ago
    Could you explain clearly what you are trying to convey? I don't think the Bezos example is very helpful since it's an outlier with a very specific situation.
    - jasode 7y ago
      >I don't think the Bezos example is very helpful since it's an outlier He's an outlier in terms of being richer than Warren Buffet and Bill Gates but I would disagree he's an outlier in terms of the reasons for not following Blanda's advice. I argue Bezos has similar reasons that many others have who also prefer to post on Twitter/Medium instead of "owning their own platform". Another example is Stewart Butterfield (CEO of Slack and cofounder of Flickr); he also posts to Twitter & Medium instead of owning his own platform. As a cofounder of Flickr, he's presumably self-educated on the tradeoffs of using others' platforms and yet he still chose to post on Twitter instead of his own "stewartbutterfield.com". >Could you explain clearly what you are trying to convey? The absolutism of "Always own your platform" is wrong. The advice should be "Understand the _tradeoffs_ of using your own platform or someone elses's platform." -- It depends on your goals and going through the effort of "owning your own platform" to duplicate Youtube/Medium/etc may be a unnecessary distraction from your objectives.
      - Bakary 7y ago
        All of these examples are almost non-sequiturs because these people operate in a different world altogether compared to the audience the article is supposed to target. They have their own huge things going on and are not waiting to make the front page of HN or any other metric relevant to a small scale user trying to make a name for themselves. As the other user said I think we need a dose of Occam's razor in there. The posts went to Twitter and Medium because they're the relevant platforms du jour for this sort of famous person announcement. The employee in charge of social just put them there and voilà. I honestly doubt Bezos even gave a single thought to the finer points discussed here.
        jasode 7y ago
- jimbokun 7y ago
  I think that was jasode's point?

by jasode 7y ago

sdinsn 7y ago

You are overthinking this. He used Twitter and Medium because people follow him on those platforms.

jasode 7y ago
>He used Twitter and Medium because people follow him on those platforms. Of course, yes. That's where the audience is. I'm pretty sure we all know that. (A small nitpick -- Bezos actually didn't have any followers on Medium before his first and only Medium post[1]. Therefore, he could have directed the Twitter link to a blog his own domain "jeffbezos.com" but he chose not to do that.) >You are overthinking this. Yes I am! And I want others to overthink it too. The point of my comment is to dissect the topic of this thread "Always Own Your Own Platform" -- by using a prominent counterexample. JB didn't follow Sean Blanda's advice[2]. He also didn't adhere to the POSSE guideline. Why? ("Because JB's followers are there.") Let's try to break the infinite loop of nonproductive discourse. _Why_ are JB's followers on Twitter? Even if they're on Twitter, why does JB even _care_ about that? He could have just followed Sean Blanda's advice and posted to "jeffbezos.com" -- but he did not. Let's overthink the reasons why Blanda's advice was not followed. [1] only one Medium article by JB: https://medium.com/@jeffreypbezos https://medium.com/@jeffreypbezos [2] https://twitter.com/SeanBlanda/status/1134076887821631488 https://twitter.com/SeanBlanda/status/1134076887821631488
- Bakary 7y ago
  Could you explain clearly what you are trying to convey? I don't think the Bezos example is very helpful since it's an outlier with a very specific situation.
  - jasode 7y ago
    >I don't think the Bezos example is very helpful since it's an outlier He's an outlier in terms of being richer than Warren Buffet and Bill Gates but I would disagree he's an outlier in terms of the reasons for not following Blanda's advice. I argue Bezos has similar reasons that many others have who also prefer to post on Twitter/Medium instead of "owning their own platform". Another example is Stewart Butterfield (CEO of Slack and cofounder of Flickr); he also posts to Twitter & Medium instead of owning his own platform. As a cofounder of Flickr, he's presumably self-educated on the tradeoffs of using others' platforms and yet he still chose to post on Twitter instead of his own "stewartbutterfield.com". >Could you explain clearly what you are trying to convey? The absolutism of "Always own your platform" is wrong. The advice should be "Understand the _tradeoffs_ of using your own platform or someone elses's platform." -- It depends on your goals and going through the effort of "owning your own platform" to duplicate Youtube/Medium/etc may be a unnecessary distraction from your objectives.
    - Bakary 7y ago
      All of these examples are almost non-sequiturs because these people operate in a different world altogether compared to the audience the article is supposed to target. They have their own huge things going on and are not waiting to make the front page of HN or any other metric relevant to a small scale user trying to make a name for themselves. As the other user said I think we need a dose of Occam's razor in there. The posts went to Twitter and Medium because they're the relevant platforms du jour for this sort of famous person announcement. The employee in charge of social just put them there and voilà. I honestly doubt Bezos even gave a single thought to the finer points discussed here.
      - jasode 7y ago
jimbokun 7y ago
I think that was jasode's point?