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Scribd have consistently been a horrible company. They actively "slurped" (their word) as many documents as they could, ignoring things like copyright, into th

Scribd have consistently been a horrible company. They actively "slurped" (their word) as many documents as they could, ignoring things like copyright, into their archive. They brushed a lot of those concerns aside which left a really sour taste. HN actually used to have a feature to switch PDF links to Scribd ones (not sure if it was manual or automatic)[1] 1. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1124940 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1124940

jacquesm 6y ago
That was a - largely successful - attempt to boost ScribD by using HN. Indirectly this benefited YC.
- ErrantX 6y ago
  Yep, still grates to this day.
goodbye_twy 6y ago
What even? Has there been an apology from dang for this? Is this sort of thing still happening? I have a rule not to read forums which do shady stuff to the content. Maybe it's time to adblock the HN homepage.
- Rexxar 6y ago
  10 years ago pdf was not properly supported in browsers and there was a lot of complaints on each pdf submissions. This was probably seen as a good idea to fix this problem at the time.
- plorkyeran 6y ago
  It happened significantly before dang's involvement in HN.
  - goodgriefer 6y ago
    It's always the same with VC's. Do what you can (illegal or no), obfuscate and redirect, ignore when possible, and finally fake-apology ("we're sorry you feel bad"). Sure the "rules" say to assume with best intentions. That goes along with "obfuscate and redirect". It's easier to point at rules as a club to make an example. But in reality, in the end VCs are themselves toxic. Look no further than the crowd of businesses and partners YC surrounds itself with.
    - yc_yuck 6y ago
      Very true. Unfortunately, too many people ignore this, or don't realize this, and instead lionize VCs like they're some class of better humans or something. Quite sickening, really.
      - goodgriefer 6y ago
        It is obvious why these people suck up to VC's. It's where the easy money is. Banks are super risk adverse (in business 3+ years, with client base and revenue, and collateral).. Versus some shit VCs who'll encourage to "disrupt" (eg: dismiss legal or safety regulations to extract quick profit) with a 1 out of 10 chance of a startup hitting the hockey stick growth. Lie with the dogs, and you get fleas. I'll leave it to the reader to decide who the dogs and fleas are.
1123581321 6y ago
I appreciated that feature (and Scribd, generally) at the time. I’m not happy with what the company became but I’m not rewriting my memory over it.
bluntfang 6y ago
sounds a lot like archive.org
jyriand 6y ago
I don't know what to think about Scribd. I clearly remember all the shady tactics they used with copyrighted pdf's etc, but on the other hand I'm a pretty happy customer of theirs. Where else could I get thousands of ebooks and audiobooks for 7-8 euros per month?

jacquesm 6y ago

That was a - largely successful - attempt to boost ScribD by using HN. Indirectly this benefited YC.

ErrantX 6y ago
Yep, still grates to this day.

goodbye_twy 6y ago

What even? Has there been an apology from dang for this? Is this sort of thing still happening? I have a rule not to read forums which do shady stuff to the content. Maybe it's time to adblock the HN homepage.

Rexxar 6y ago
10 years ago pdf was not properly supported in browsers and there was a lot of complaints on each pdf submissions. This was probably seen as a good idea to fix this problem at the time.
plorkyeran 6y ago
It happened significantly before dang's involvement in HN.
- goodgriefer 6y ago
  It's always the same with VC's. Do what you can (illegal or no), obfuscate and redirect, ignore when possible, and finally fake-apology ("we're sorry you feel bad"). Sure the "rules" say to assume with best intentions. That goes along with "obfuscate and redirect". It's easier to point at rules as a club to make an example. But in reality, in the end VCs are themselves toxic. Look no further than the crowd of businesses and partners YC surrounds itself with.
  - yc_yuck 6y ago
    Very true. Unfortunately, too many people ignore this, or don't realize this, and instead lionize VCs like they're some class of better humans or something. Quite sickening, really.
    - goodgriefer 6y ago
      It is obvious why these people suck up to VC's. It's where the easy money is. Banks are super risk adverse (in business 3+ years, with client base and revenue, and collateral).. Versus some shit VCs who'll encourage to "disrupt" (eg: dismiss legal or safety regulations to extract quick profit) with a 1 out of 10 chance of a startup hitting the hockey stick growth. Lie with the dogs, and you get fleas. I'll leave it to the reader to decide who the dogs and fleas are.

1123581321 6y ago

I appreciated that feature (and Scribd, generally) at the time. I’m not happy with what the company became but I’m not rewriting my memory over it.

bluntfang 6y ago

sounds a lot like archive.org

jyriand 6y ago

I don't know what to think about Scribd. I clearly remember all the shady tactics they used with copyrighted pdf's etc, but on the other hand I'm a pretty happy customer of theirs. Where else could I get thousands of ebooks and audiobooks for 7-8 euros per month?