4 ms·
Not sure why YC should be getting blamed here? I give them a lot of credit as it appears that hacker news broke this story. If there was anything sinister goi
by tpatke 15y ago
Not sure why YC should be getting blamed here? I give them a lot of credit as it appears that hacker news broke this story. If there was anything sinister going on I think they could have just deleted the story.
Airbnb is another matter. Asking the blogger to remove the post sounds like such a bone-headed move that I have trouble believing it is true.
Airbnb has lost all credibility in my book.
- ig1 15y agoIt was a bit tacky that YC removed AirBnB's name from the title of the original story.
- tpatke 15y agoThanks for pointing that out. I didn't realize.
- palebluedot 15y agoIt should be noted that when they changed that story title, they were changing it to the actual title of the blog posting. That is pretty standard practice here, to prevent editorializing via the title. Although, I can see how it would come across wrong in this case.
- estel 15y agoThe discussion was here: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2813118 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2813118
- Arjuna 15y agoThank you for pointing this out. The title was changed from "AirBnB: Crimes committed against a host" to "Violated: A traveler's lost faith, a difficult lesson learned" As you noted, this matches the title of the story on the blog. From http://ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html http://ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html "You can make up a new title if you want, but if you put gratuitous editorial spin on it, the editors may rewrite it."
- wensing 15y agoIronically "AirBnB: Crimes committed against a host" reads much more factually than the original title, which is much more editorial in nature. Compare: "Reggie Bush: Joins the Miami Dolphins" vs. "Signed: A football player's sincere belief, a hefty contract earned". In the context of HN I much prefer the non-original title.
- ig1 15y agoHN could easily automatically use the title of the submitted article, it doesn't for the purpose of allowing more relevant titles to be written for the HN audience. The submitted title accurately portrayed the story as linked to without significant editorializing. There was a clear conflict of interest in YC modifying the title to be one more favourable to one of their portfolio companies. This is exactly the kind of situation chinese walls are designed for, where I've worked for investment banks in the past there's no way they'd allow their investment arm to edit the output of an analyst report to be favourable to a company they invest in. That's the kind of thing that makes you subject to a regulatory investigation.
- almightygod 15y agoYC does not hide the fact that HN is a tool for their needs. They have made no claims to be an unbiased news source so we can't really hold them to that standard.
- ig1 15y agoYC have stated they only edit titles for the good of the site and not for the good of YC. If they wish to adopt that policy they're free to do so and make a statement to that effect. However I imagine they don't do so due to the obviously loss in good will such a position would cause.
- class_vs_object 15y ago> YC should be getting blamed here? What emphasis if any does the YC program place on ethics?
- thom 15y agoIn amongst all the other mentoring and help that YCombinator provides its companies, does it have a press officer on hand for crises such as this? As you say, this is such a bone-headed move that it seems like something that needs to be addressed on the same level as technical, business or hiring blunders.