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This is quite common unfortunately and has been used by billion dollar companies like Airbnb to get traction(1). Back in the days this was just plain old spammi

This is quite common unfortunately and has been used by billion dollar companies like Airbnb to get traction(1). Back in the days this was just plain old spamming but nowadays it is called growth hacking Craigslist growth hack —very early on, anyone who listed on Airbnb could cross-list on Craigslist with one click, Airbnb helped by filling out all Craigslists forms with a ‘bot.’ The hack required some technical gnarl to perform, but it was perfect for this early stage. The team also appeared to look for all listings of vacation properties being listed on Craigslist, and emailed the owners to list also on Airbnb. Yes, it’s spam. But yes, it worked. (1) https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/20140918020352-142089-airbnb-s-growth-hacking-story https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/20140918020352-142089-airbnb-...

0des 5y ago
Why is every growth hacker I meet IRL an ex-SEO guy who is convinced I want to buy their NFT bs?
- chad_strategic 5y ago
  What's worse an SEO black magic or NFT nonsense?
neilv 5y ago
> The team also appeared to look for all listings of vacation properties being listed on Craigslist, and emailed the owners to list also on Airbnb. Yes, it’s spam. But yes, it worked. That was arguably expressly disallowed on CraigsList since very early on. (Post pages would have a checkbox for whether people could contact you for other purposes, and displayed/scraped posts would indicate how the poster answered. I don't see how "growth hackers" could've missed that.) CL was built on a Californian flavor of warm-fuzzy, and it was a shame to see Californian-style startups then abuse that. (Well, when CL grew mainstream, the anonymity and hookups attracted sketchiness, but was another corruption.)
- scrose 5y ago
  Funnily enough, Airbnb also expressly stated that you were not allowed to scrape their listings early on and went to (moderate) lengths to make it difficult to do so, even when they were breaking, and/or empowering people, to break the laws in given areas. Everyone wants to keep their data secret, but no one wants to respect others wishes.
  - nowherebeen 5y ago
    Same thing with Facebook. They scrape everyone’s website but if you open the console on their website: a big legal disclaimer say it’s their code. The only website I have ever encounter that does that. Even Google doesn’t do it. The hypocrisy is astounding.
    - registeredcorn 5y ago
      Wow. I thought you were joking, but nope. That appears to be real. https://i.imgur.com/jCtREao.png https://i.imgur.com/jCtREao.png
      - deleted 5y ago
        [deleted]
      - Leherenn 5y ago
        It doesn't say you can't copy anything from their website, it says don't copy paste code here because you'll end up pwning yourself, with a link to "selfxss". That's an anti-scam message, doesn't sound that bad to me.
        nowherebeen 5y ago
        It seems like they recently changed the message. It was much more aggressive in the past. Something along the lines of reading it could be consider copyright infringement.
iamacyborg 5y ago
> nowadays it is called growth hacking Nowadays it’s called illegal. At least in the EU.
- mosselman 5y ago
  Do you have a source for this?
  - repox 5y ago
    > Do you have a source for this? https://gdpr.eu/ https://gdpr.eu/ It's quite comprehensive, but article 4 on consent.
    - frereubu 5y ago
      They'd probably try to rely on legitimate interest rather than consent, but it would depend to a large extent on how personalised and automated the messages were.
      - yakak 5y ago
        Good luck with that. Most legitimate interests require the reason to be defensive or a relationship to exist where there's an expectation they would need to process your data. I am legitimately interested in spamming you is not really a defense.
        frereubu 5y ago
        To be clear, I wasn't defending it - I was just saying that they'd probably try to claim that rather than consent. I agree that they'd likely fail if it actually came to a court case.
      - rat9988 5y ago
        Legitimate interest is not vague enough to be relied on.
      - 5y ago

0des 5y ago

Why is every growth hacker I meet IRL an ex-SEO guy who is convinced I want to buy their NFT bs?

chad_strategic 5y ago
What's worse an SEO black magic or NFT nonsense?

neilv 5y ago

> The team also appeared to look for all listings of vacation properties being listed on Craigslist, and emailed the owners to list also on Airbnb. Yes, it’s spam. But yes, it worked. That was arguably expressly disallowed on CraigsList since very early on. (Post pages would have a checkbox for whether people could contact you for other purposes, and displayed/scraped posts would indicate how the poster answered. I don't see how "growth hackers" could've missed that.) CL was built on a Californian flavor of warm-fuzzy, and it was a shame to see Californian-style startups then abuse that. (Well, when CL grew mainstream, the anonymity and hookups attracted sketchiness, but was another corruption.)

scrose 5y ago
Funnily enough, Airbnb also expressly stated that you were not allowed to scrape their listings early on and went to (moderate) lengths to make it difficult to do so, even when they were breaking, and/or empowering people, to break the laws in given areas. Everyone wants to keep their data secret, but no one wants to respect others wishes.
- nowherebeen 5y ago
  Same thing with Facebook. They scrape everyone’s website but if you open the console on their website: a big legal disclaimer say it’s their code. The only website I have ever encounter that does that. Even Google doesn’t do it. The hypocrisy is astounding.
  - registeredcorn 5y ago
    Wow. I thought you were joking, but nope. That appears to be real. https://i.imgur.com/jCtREao.png https://i.imgur.com/jCtREao.png
    - deleted 5y ago
      [deleted]
    - Leherenn 5y ago
      It doesn't say you can't copy anything from their website, it says don't copy paste code here because you'll end up pwning yourself, with a link to "selfxss". That's an anti-scam message, doesn't sound that bad to me.
      - nowherebeen 5y ago
        It seems like they recently changed the message. It was much more aggressive in the past. Something along the lines of reading it could be consider copyright infringement.

iamacyborg 5y ago

> nowadays it is called growth hacking Nowadays it’s called illegal. At least in the EU.

mosselman 5y ago
Do you have a source for this?
- repox 5y ago
  > Do you have a source for this? https://gdpr.eu/ https://gdpr.eu/ It's quite comprehensive, but article 4 on consent.
  - frereubu 5y ago
    They'd probably try to rely on legitimate interest rather than consent, but it would depend to a large extent on how personalised and automated the messages were.
    - yakak 5y ago
      Good luck with that. Most legitimate interests require the reason to be defensive or a relationship to exist where there's an expectation they would need to process your data. I am legitimately interested in spamming you is not really a defense.
      - frereubu 5y ago
        To be clear, I wasn't defending it - I was just saying that they'd probably try to claim that rather than consent. I agree that they'd likely fail if it actually came to a court case.
    - rat9988 5y ago
      Legitimate interest is not vague enough to be relied on.
    - 5y ago