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Hacker News is being hacked by marketing trolls

4 points by benkarst 6y ago

I've been browsing this site on average, a couple of times a day for 5 or 6 years. Suffice to say, it's not what it used to be. I have absolutely no hard data no back this up but my intuition tells me there are a many users in the tech space that are here for marketing purposes. For example, I've noticed at least 3 times a multi-million/multi-billion dollar sass companies releasing new features or new pricing getting 400+ upvotes. Then most of the comments gushing about how great the product is. Most comments I see is shallow and opinionated as opposed to rational/technical discussion that made Hacker News what it was. It's possible that it's just my perception has changed not Hacker News. So I have to ask: Has anyone else noticed this or am I going cuckoo?

slater 6y ago
Please don't post insinuations about astroturfing, shilling, brigading, foreign agents and the like. It degrades discussion and is usually mistaken. If you're worried about abuse, email hn@ycombinator.com and we'll look at the data. https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html
atlasunshrugged 6y ago
I'd say it depends what you mean by hacked - I don't disagree that many companies see HN as another marketing channel and are trying to do the same thing here as they would on most other channels, but I do think that HN still has a bigger proportion of non-marketing/sales people who aren't just running astroturf campaigns than other places
- benkarst 6y ago
  True, I guess as any news forum grows, you're going to have marketing trolls. I'm just kinda disappointed that it never gets down-voted or called out in the comments. Maybe if more users had the right to down-vote, there wouldn't be this problem.
uniqueid 6y ago
One thing I do notice is occasional spam in "new," but, to my delight, it always winds up flagged before an hour has passed. This is usually the case even with border-line posts (eg: an acceptable title like "I just found an amazing text-editor" but a link to a lousy, crap-app text-editor). I don't have too many complaints; HN moderation is better than any other site I know.
HNShillCorn 6y ago
You're just schizophrenic or bored by the lockdowns. Please head to Reddit. It's totally unsubstantial. Your claims I mean.

4 points by benkarst 6y ago

slater 6y ago

Please don't post insinuations about astroturfing, shilling, brigading, foreign agents and the like. It degrades discussion and is usually mistaken. If you're worried about abuse, email hn@ycombinator.com and we'll look at the data. https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html

atlasunshrugged 6y ago

I'd say it depends what you mean by hacked - I don't disagree that many companies see HN as another marketing channel and are trying to do the same thing here as they would on most other channels, but I do think that HN still has a bigger proportion of non-marketing/sales people who aren't just running astroturf campaigns than other places

benkarst 6y ago
True, I guess as any news forum grows, you're going to have marketing trolls. I'm just kinda disappointed that it never gets down-voted or called out in the comments. Maybe if more users had the right to down-vote, there wouldn't be this problem.

uniqueid 6y ago

One thing I do notice is occasional spam in "new," but, to my delight, it always winds up flagged before an hour has passed. This is usually the case even with border-line posts (eg: an acceptable title like "I just found an amazing text-editor" but a link to a lousy, crap-app text-editor). I don't have too many complaints; HN moderation is better than any other site I know.

HNShillCorn 6y ago

You're just schizophrenic or bored by the lockdowns. Please head to Reddit. It's totally unsubstantial. Your claims I mean.