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My summary of this article in terms of good and evil: - Kiss My Keto unsuccessfully tries to set up an affiliate program that doesn’t eat too much margin and i

My summary of this article in terms of good and evil: - Kiss My Keto unsuccessfully tries to set up an affiliate program that doesn’t eat too much margin and is still equitable to the affiliates (I believe they are doing their best to be a force for good until proven otherwise) - Mr. Lynch gets involved and finds out the program he thought he was joining is actually not as it seems, so he reaches out to Kiss My Keto to resolve things equitably (again, I believe people are doing their best to be a force for good until proven otherwise) - Kiss My Keto initially balks but then realizes they weren’t being fair and does everything they can to resolve the problem (still a force for good) - Mr. Lynch then publicly blogs about the issue from a one-sided perspective and paints an unflattering image of Kiss My Keto. He also drafts hard on someone who actually writes useful content instead of creating something useful on his own (now he’s a force for evil) - Mr. Lynch also uses the blog as an opportunity to sell a course about how to get to the front page of HN while appealing to his authority on the matter since he has written articles that made it to the front page 17 times (more evil territory) If this is what it takes to get to the front page of HN maybe I should spend way less time here. This guy wasted everyone’s time with bad intentions. He could have legitimately wanted to help Kiss My Keto, which would have strengthened their relationship and potentially led to gains for both parties. Instead he wasted their time for a completely insignificant payoff. Seriously, if your site is getting 100k visits a month and you’re scraping the bottom of the barrel for $88 you are doing something wrong or evil. Then he tells everyone else the story and makes himself the hero and Kiss My Keto the villain. That’s what they got for their seemingly good intentions and $88. So evil on Mr. Lynch’s part. He could have thought of his own framework instead of drafting off Patrick McKenzie‘s ideas and twisting them to fit his selfish goals. Instead he practiced a bit of intellectual thievery and didn’t even further the discussion by adding anything useful. Evil again. He could have made this story valuable to readers by giving us tools to live a better life, like Patrick McKenzie did with his article. Instead he extorts us for money to learn his “proven” process for gaming his way onto the front page despite having nothing useful to say and wasting everyone’s time. Major evil. To be clear, I want more good in the world and less evil. If everyone acted like this guy the world would be terrible. Don’t be like this guy. Am I missing something? Why did this make it to the front page and why do people seem to actually like this article and find it useful? Are we all that terrible?

chki 6y ago
Because sometimes it's not about who's "good" and who's "evil". I found this story interesting and helpful because it did what it set out to do from the beginning: Answer the question of how to get what you feel is yours in a small contractual dispute without going to court by providing a small insignificant practical example. I don't really care who is right or wrong, I don't even know who Patrick McKenzie is.
Abimelex 6y ago
Bravo, exactly my thoughts. Also complaining about a conversion rate less than 1% seems pretty weird.
pessimizer 6y ago
> He could have legitimately wanted to help Kiss My Keto, which would have strengthened their relationship and potentially led to gains for both parties. Maybe, as a company, it's a bad idea to rip people off for $88. Turns out that people who have to fight you for trivial amounts of money aren't motivated to either repair the relationship or improve your company. The only people motivated to make a big deal about it are people who can figure out an angle that makes it profitable for them. Is there no difference between good and bad things? Aggressive marketing is annoying, not a moral failure. With some people, exploiting being a victim for personal benefit can be rationalized as worse than victimizing people. It's like a killer being angry that a relative of their victim writes books about the crime. "Where's my share?" In terms of good and evil: - Kiss My Keto set up an affiliate program. (morally neutral) - Mr. Lynch joins that affiliate program. (morally neutral) - Kiss My Keto has changed that affiliate program to exclude their primary product. (morally neutral) - Kiss My Keto doesn't inform its affiliates of that change, or update the information on the website of that change. (morally bad) - Kiss My Keto asks affiliates to share holiday promotion codes in order to "boost earnings," yet has a policy that refuses to pay referrals who use holiday promotion codes (morally bad) - Kiss My Keto also offers promotion codes in pop-ups to people referred to its site, and if any of these promotion codes are used, they refuse to pay for the referral. They also do not mention this in any material they share with their affiliates (morally bad) - Mr. Lynch notices that Kiss My Keto has effectively created an referral network that doesn't pay for referrals, and doesn't tell its affiliates that it doesn't pay for referrals. (morally neutral) - Mr. Lynch spends weeks in an email exchange being ignored and argued with, until someone at Kiss My Keto notices that they are dealing with a loudmouth, updates their website terms, and starts paying for referrals. (morally neutral) - Mr. Lynch blogs about it, and ties it in to a product that he's selling. (morally neutral) What's not included: - Mr. Lynch deceitfully fails to blog about the interaction from Kiss My Keto's perspective, completely fails to make an effort to preserve the image of Kiss My Keto in that blog, and viciously includes a reference to a different blog (that describes the approach he was taking in this dispute) rather than making up an original framework for dealing with disputes in general. (obviously destroying the world with his evil.)

chki 6y ago

Because sometimes it's not about who's "good" and who's "evil". I found this story interesting and helpful because it did what it set out to do from the beginning: Answer the question of how to get what you feel is yours in a small contractual dispute without going to court by providing a small insignificant practical example. I don't really care who is right or wrong, I don't even know who Patrick McKenzie is.

Abimelex 6y ago

Bravo, exactly my thoughts. Also complaining about a conversion rate less than 1% seems pretty weird.

pessimizer 6y ago

> He could have legitimately wanted to help Kiss My Keto, which would have strengthened their relationship and potentially led to gains for both parties. Maybe, as a company, it's a bad idea to rip people off for $88. Turns out that people who have to fight you for trivial amounts of money aren't motivated to either repair the relationship or improve your company. The only people motivated to make a big deal about it are people who can figure out an angle that makes it profitable for them. Is there no difference between good and bad things? Aggressive marketing is annoying, not a moral failure. With some people, exploiting being a victim for personal benefit can be rationalized as worse than victimizing people. It's like a killer being angry that a relative of their victim writes books about the crime. "Where's my share?" In terms of good and evil: - Kiss My Keto set up an affiliate program. (morally neutral) - Mr. Lynch joins that affiliate program. (morally neutral) - Kiss My Keto has changed that affiliate program to exclude their primary product. (morally neutral) - Kiss My Keto doesn't inform its affiliates of that change, or update the information on the website of that change. (morally bad) - Kiss My Keto asks affiliates to share holiday promotion codes in order to "boost earnings," yet has a policy that refuses to pay referrals who use holiday promotion codes (morally bad) - Kiss My Keto also offers promotion codes in pop-ups to people referred to its site, and if any of these promotion codes are used, they refuse to pay for the referral. They also do not mention this in any material they share with their affiliates (morally bad) - Mr. Lynch notices that Kiss My Keto has effectively created an referral network that doesn't pay for referrals, and doesn't tell its affiliates that it doesn't pay for referrals. (morally neutral) - Mr. Lynch spends weeks in an email exchange being ignored and argued with, until someone at Kiss My Keto notices that they are dealing with a loudmouth, updates their website terms, and starts paying for referrals. (morally neutral) - Mr. Lynch blogs about it, and ties it in to a product that he's selling. (morally neutral) What's not included: - Mr. Lynch deceitfully fails to blog about the interaction from Kiss My Keto's perspective, completely fails to make an effort to preserve the image of Kiss My Keto in that blog, and viciously includes a reference to a different blog (that describes the approach he was taking in this dispute) rather than making up an original framework for dealing with disputes in general. (obviously destroying the world with his evil.)