3 ms·

Ask HN: Is it rude/inappropriate to submit your own content?

15 points by alecbenzer 15y ago

(see title) Ie, linking to your own blog

benologist 15y ago
I think it's easy to figure out - if the person's a genuine member of the community then who cares. If like macobserver, tekgoblin and a bunch of other sites they just treat it like a link dump, then it's spam and they're just exploiting HN and the community for traffic and seo.
glimcat 15y ago
If it's worth my time, no. If it's spam, yes.
- alecbenzer 15y ago
  right, but how is one to know if it's worth your time? I wrote something on my blog. I think it may be interesting/insightful to some. should I post it and let the vote system take care of whether I was right or wrong? or am I going to get flamed for shameless self-promotion (well, would I deserve to be flamed)?
  - aerique 15y ago
    Just try it out. It's usually very obvious whether something is spam or not. That said, don't feel bad if your blog is interesting but doesn't make the front page. You might be just unlucky.
  - glimcat 15y ago
    Eventually, you just have to open the box and see whether the cat is dead.
Mz 15y ago
People do this all the time. I can't tell you how to judge how well it will go over with the community. If I could figure that out, I would post links to things I sometimes write. (I think I did that once and it wasn't in hopes of promoting it but in hopes of getting feedback from smart people and it didn't result in much.) Best of luck.
sorbus 15y ago
If you think that it's good content, that people on HN would enjoy, then you should submit it - I would rather that my upvote goes to the person who actually wrote the content. If you get upvoted, then you were right and should trust your judgement. If not, then either you should reconsider your judgement, or you submitted it at a time when there aren't many people on the site. However, if you find yourself submitting everything you write - or that most of your submissions are being killed, or flamed - you might want to reconsider your judgement (or all of the stuff you're writing is enjoyed by the community, which should be very obvious if it turns out to be the case).
pbreit 15y ago
Not necessarily but discretion is advised. Some prolific users submit their own posts (ex: http://news.ycombinator.org/item?id=2837905 http://news.ycombinator.org/item?id=2837905).
andrewflnr 15y ago
On the front page right now is a post by raganwald from his own blog blog [1]. I've seen other examples as well. If your content is worthwhile and appropriate, it should be fine. [1] http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2837905 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2837905
ecounysis 15y ago
Not at all if you feel someone in the community would find something of value in your content. Comments are essentially one's own content and there are tons of those around.
Mizza 15y ago
Of course not! That's the whole point of the upvote system. If your content is good, it'll float. If it's spammy, it'll sink. Well, in theory.
chc 15y ago
I think it's best to keep ego out of it: The fact that it's yours has no bearing either way on whether it would be appropriate to submit it. People will appreciate good, relevant articles and they'll be turned off by mediocre or irrelevant articles. Unless you're Zed Shaw or something, your identity doesn't factor into most people's opinions. A more relevant concern would be how honestly you can evaluate your own work. If you think everything you write is golden (i.e. you simply can't view your work critically), it's probably best to leave it to other people to submit your deathless prose. But if you just really think a particular piece would interest the community you're posting to, hey, it's worth a shot.
rawsyntax 15y ago
I think it's ok. Most of my blog posts get 3 up votes or so, but my post on side projects got 130 http://rawsyntax.com/post/5982784556/importance-of-side-projects http://rawsyntax.com/post/5982784556/importance-of-side-proj... But then again, I write blog posts I feel this crowd would be interested in
jp 15y ago
Am I the only one who finds this line of thinking slightly naive ? This site is probably gamed out of existence by sock puppets, social media experts and old Digg users. I am just waiting for the "accidental" porn reference to hit the front page. There is also a ton of haters on this site who downvote full time because of high karma from the old days. But it is better than part time haters who just got lucky with a funny comment or TechMeme snatchup. Every time I say anything my karma goes up and down like that girl on Jersey Shore the other night. Some commenters get -4 while spammers get -2. Now THAT is the college effect ! Remember, all honesty is brutally punished in academia !
- hluska 15y ago
  This is wonderfully stated - thanks for brightening my mood!

15 points by alecbenzer 15y ago

(see title) Ie, linking to your own blog

I think it's easy to figure out - if the person's a genuine member of the community then who cares. If like macobserver, tekgoblin and a bunch of other sites they just treat it like a link dump, then it's spam and they're just exploiting HN and the community for traffic and seo.

glimcat 15y ago

If it's worth my time, no. If it's spam, yes.

alecbenzer 15y ago
right, but how is one to know if it's worth your time? I wrote something on my blog. I think it may be interesting/insightful to some. should I post it and let the vote system take care of whether I was right or wrong? or am I going to get flamed for shameless self-promotion (well, would I deserve to be flamed)?
- aerique 15y ago
  Just try it out. It's usually very obvious whether something is spam or not. That said, don't feel bad if your blog is interesting but doesn't make the front page. You might be just unlucky.
- glimcat 15y ago
  Eventually, you just have to open the box and see whether the cat is dead.

Mz 15y ago

People do this all the time. I can't tell you how to judge how well it will go over with the community. If I could figure that out, I would post links to things I sometimes write. (I think I did that once and it wasn't in hopes of promoting it but in hopes of getting feedback from smart people and it didn't result in much.) Best of luck.

sorbus 15y ago

If you think that it's good content, that people on HN would enjoy, then you should submit it - I would rather that my upvote goes to the person who actually wrote the content. If you get upvoted, then you were right and should trust your judgement. If not, then either you should reconsider your judgement, or you submitted it at a time when there aren't many people on the site. However, if you find yourself submitting everything you write - or that most of your submissions are being killed, or flamed - you might want to reconsider your judgement (or all of the stuff you're writing is enjoyed by the community, which should be very obvious if it turns out to be the case).

pbreit 15y ago

Not necessarily but discretion is advised. Some prolific users submit their own posts (ex: http://news.ycombinator.org/item?id=2837905 http://news.ycombinator.org/item?id=2837905).

andrewflnr 15y ago

On the front page right now is a post by raganwald from his own blog blog [1]. I've seen other examples as well. If your content is worthwhile and appropriate, it should be fine. [1] http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2837905 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2837905

ecounysis 15y ago

Not at all if you feel someone in the community would find something of value in your content. Comments are essentially one's own content and there are tons of those around.

Mizza 15y ago

Of course not! That's the whole point of the upvote system. If your content is good, it'll float. If it's spammy, it'll sink. Well, in theory.

chc 15y ago

I think it's best to keep ego out of it: The fact that it's yours has no bearing either way on whether it would be appropriate to submit it. People will appreciate good, relevant articles and they'll be turned off by mediocre or irrelevant articles. Unless you're Zed Shaw or something, your identity doesn't factor into most people's opinions. A more relevant concern would be how honestly you can evaluate your own work. If you think everything you write is golden (i.e. you simply can't view your work critically), it's probably best to leave it to other people to submit your deathless prose. But if you just really think a particular piece would interest the community you're posting to, hey, it's worth a shot.

rawsyntax 15y ago

I think it's ok. Most of my blog posts get 3 up votes or so, but my post on side projects got 130 http://rawsyntax.com/post/5982784556/importance-of-side-projects http://rawsyntax.com/post/5982784556/importance-of-side-proj... But then again, I write blog posts I feel this crowd would be interested in

jp 15y ago

Am I the only one who finds this line of thinking slightly naive ? This site is probably gamed out of existence by sock puppets, social media experts and old Digg users. I am just waiting for the "accidental" porn reference to hit the front page. There is also a ton of haters on this site who downvote full time because of high karma from the old days. But it is better than part time haters who just got lucky with a funny comment or TechMeme snatchup. Every time I say anything my karma goes up and down like that girl on Jersey Shore the other night. Some commenters get -4 while spammers get -2. Now THAT is the college effect ! Remember, all honesty is brutally punished in academia !

hluska 15y ago
This is wonderfully stated - thanks for brightening my mood!