3 ms·

Why is this "get rich quick" crap on the front page of HN?

Legion 15y ago
Because someone posted it, and a bunch of people voted it up, and there's no downvote to express our displeasure with get-rich-quick junk or content-less Techcrunch stories or what-have-you.
- petercooper 15y ago
  There is. Flagging. And before you say it's "not for that", people are clearly using it as such. I've had perfectly legit posts (that I haven't "promoted" at all) slide way lower than their votes would indicate due to flaggers. So it seems a legitimate downvote system now.
vertr 15y ago
I think it was gamed.
- shii 15y ago
  Although I'm certain HN has been gamed in the past (search through the top results on searchyc for high traffic blogs and you'll notice a trend, and high upvotes with very few and completely worthless comments -- the effect of a content-less post), but in this case I'm not so sure. I keep a hawkeye out whenever I see a post from a top blog on HN's frontpage, shit like this problogger, smashingweb, and mashable which are always either contentless diatribes or a bizarre summary of a link that's at the bottom of the post. There's a specific name for these types of posts but I forget exactly what. Anyways, this poster has a history if submitting from these major blogs anyways, so I think it's just a case of him/her being subscribed to their feeds. The truly worrying part is seeing it with 100+ upvotes on the frontpage. That's not a good sign.
  - vertr 15y ago
    Fair enough. Thanks for the insight. I just saw 3 comments and 50+ upvotes and it seemed fishy.
  - wyclif 15y ago
    There's a specific name for these types of posts but I forget exactly what. Blogspam.
  - deleted 15y ago
    [deleted]
  - emanuer 15y ago
    I posted the link. Yes I subscribed to the problogger and found this story to be inspirational and posted it for this reason. I had no idea that problogger would be met wich such an furious amount of contempt. I will refrain from ever posting a link from them again.
- emanuer 15y ago
  I posted the link, I don't know if it was gamed, but if so I was certainly not involved in it. I am surprised about the amount of upvotes myself, but the story is quite inspiring, independent from who wrote it, or on which domain it is hosted.
hasenj 15y ago
It's not a "Get rich quick". It's a "quit your job and do independent work", which is a pretty common idea amongst HN members, I think.

Because someone posted it, and a bunch of people voted it up, and there's no downvote to express our displeasure with get-rich-quick junk or content-less Techcrunch stories or what-have-you.

petercooper 15y ago
There is. Flagging. And before you say it's "not for that", people are clearly using it as such. I've had perfectly legit posts (that I haven't "promoted" at all) slide way lower than their votes would indicate due to flaggers. So it seems a legitimate downvote system now.

vertr 15y ago

I think it was gamed.

shii 15y ago
Although I'm certain HN has been gamed in the past (search through the top results on searchyc for high traffic blogs and you'll notice a trend, and high upvotes with very few and completely worthless comments -- the effect of a content-less post), but in this case I'm not so sure. I keep a hawkeye out whenever I see a post from a top blog on HN's frontpage, shit like this problogger, smashingweb, and mashable which are always either contentless diatribes or a bizarre summary of a link that's at the bottom of the post. There's a specific name for these types of posts but I forget exactly what. Anyways, this poster has a history if submitting from these major blogs anyways, so I think it's just a case of him/her being subscribed to their feeds. The truly worrying part is seeing it with 100+ upvotes on the frontpage. That's not a good sign.
- vertr 15y ago
  Fair enough. Thanks for the insight. I just saw 3 comments and 50+ upvotes and it seemed fishy.
- wyclif 15y ago
  There's a specific name for these types of posts but I forget exactly what. Blogspam.
- deleted 15y ago
  [deleted]
- emanuer 15y ago
  I posted the link. Yes I subscribed to the problogger and found this story to be inspirational and posted it for this reason. I had no idea that problogger would be met wich such an furious amount of contempt. I will refrain from ever posting a link from them again.
emanuer 15y ago
I posted the link, I don't know if it was gamed, but if so I was certainly not involved in it. I am surprised about the amount of upvotes myself, but the story is quite inspiring, independent from who wrote it, or on which domain it is hosted.

hasenj 15y ago

It's not a "Get rich quick". It's a "quit your job and do independent work", which is a pretty common idea amongst HN members, I think.