4 ms·

I believe my account could potentially be shadow-banned (comments are pushed to the bottom always) due to a few years back i talked incessantly about the time G

I believe my account could potentially be shadow-banned (comments are pushed to the bottom always) due to a few years back i talked incessantly about the time Google invited me to demo technology of mine and they were pretty awful. Of course that's just my word yet when another HN member met the same people at Google ATAP and they patented her work without her consent then got caught with email evidence I did talk incessantly about it. Eventually I was told by an admin here I need to chill / move on which I have and haven't talked about it in a two years or so. Overall I just wanted to alert others that tech companies even ones who inspired you are not to be trusted. Demand tons of money if and when you get an invite!

Crosseye_Jack 4y ago
I see you comment near the top
kodah 4y ago
Shadow banning on HN follows a visible pattern. They'll be marked dead automatically and someone will have to vouch your post. If they just float to the bottom with a small number or no upvotes, nobody found your post interesting.
georgemcbay 4y ago
I can see your post and I'm just some random logged-in user so you're probably fine on the shadowbanning front. AFAICT a lot of posters here are pretty skeptical of contemporary google for all sorts of reasons. I know I am, and my job these days is primarily Android app development. The days of "Don't be Evil" are long over literally and figuratively. I'm sure there are lots of fine people working at Google, but its a giant company that exists primarily to stuff ads in your face at the highest rate you will tolerate and collect data on you for the same purpose so its not too surprising that there's going to be some ethically dubious goings-on as well and even when you get past that its hard to root for a company that has such a long history of taking well-regarded projects, developed either internally or acquired, and just unceremoniously killing them off right after you start to depend on them. I have no knowledge of the incident you're talking about but I suspect whatever warning you got was more to do with talking "incessantly" (your words) about the specific issue rather than the issue itself. At a certain point even completely valid complaining can come off as spamming if you force-inject it into any semi-related topic, though I also understand wanting to shout from the rafters when you feel like you've been personally wronged by a large, well-known entity.
- paul7986 4y ago
  If curious here is the post re: MIT student who met some of the same folks I did https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18566929 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18566929 It is old news but it's how Silicon Valley works ..every man or woman for themselves and all tech companies I hear incentivize their R&D folks to developers to file patents. I'm sure the tech companies do not care where or how the inventions came from until it would become a PR nightmare. Which Silicon Valley stealing from fledging inventors seems to be stories not worth telling and maybe cause it's textbook stuff.
dang 4y ago
There are rate limits (I covered this elsewhere in this thread: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=34129956 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=34129956) and sometimes also downweights on accounts that have posted too many low-quality and/or flamewar comments. We're happy to remove these penalties once an account has built up a track record of not doing that. We have no interest in punishing or excluding anybody. We're just trying to have an internet forum that hovers at least a little above the low-quality median. That doesn't seem like too much to hope for, but it happens to be nearly impossible on the open internet. Therefore we have to use everything we can along all three dimensions that compose this place: community, software, and moderation.
- paul7986 4y ago
  Thanks for the reply, Dang. Your reply doesn't say my account was or wasn't yet it could be as well that my thoughts/posts aren't well liked. My thoughts are usually fringe. Happy Holidays!

Crosseye_Jack 4y ago

I see you comment near the top

kodah 4y ago

Shadow banning on HN follows a visible pattern. They'll be marked dead automatically and someone will have to vouch your post. If they just float to the bottom with a small number or no upvotes, nobody found your post interesting.

georgemcbay 4y ago

I can see your post and I'm just some random logged-in user so you're probably fine on the shadowbanning front. AFAICT a lot of posters here are pretty skeptical of contemporary google for all sorts of reasons. I know I am, and my job these days is primarily Android app development. The days of "Don't be Evil" are long over literally and figuratively. I'm sure there are lots of fine people working at Google, but its a giant company that exists primarily to stuff ads in your face at the highest rate you will tolerate and collect data on you for the same purpose so its not too surprising that there's going to be some ethically dubious goings-on as well and even when you get past that its hard to root for a company that has such a long history of taking well-regarded projects, developed either internally or acquired, and just unceremoniously killing them off right after you start to depend on them. I have no knowledge of the incident you're talking about but I suspect whatever warning you got was more to do with talking "incessantly" (your words) about the specific issue rather than the issue itself. At a certain point even completely valid complaining can come off as spamming if you force-inject it into any semi-related topic, though I also understand wanting to shout from the rafters when you feel like you've been personally wronged by a large, well-known entity.

paul7986 4y ago
If curious here is the post re: MIT student who met some of the same folks I did https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18566929 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18566929 It is old news but it's how Silicon Valley works ..every man or woman for themselves and all tech companies I hear incentivize their R&D folks to developers to file patents. I'm sure the tech companies do not care where or how the inventions came from until it would become a PR nightmare. Which Silicon Valley stealing from fledging inventors seems to be stories not worth telling and maybe cause it's textbook stuff.

dang 4y ago

There are rate limits (I covered this elsewhere in this thread: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=34129956 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=34129956) and sometimes also downweights on accounts that have posted too many low-quality and/or flamewar comments. We're happy to remove these penalties once an account has built up a track record of not doing that. We have no interest in punishing or excluding anybody. We're just trying to have an internet forum that hovers at least a little above the low-quality median. That doesn't seem like too much to hope for, but it happens to be nearly impossible on the open internet. Therefore we have to use everything we can along all three dimensions that compose this place: community, software, and moderation.

paul7986 4y ago
Thanks for the reply, Dang. Your reply doesn't say my account was or wasn't yet it could be as well that my thoughts/posts aren't well liked. My thoughts are usually fringe. Happy Holidays!