4 ms·

Publishing an article on Forbes costs a couple hundred bucks. A bunch of "contributors" sell a spot on SEO forums. I was doing a SEO optimization for my friend'

• throwaway2037 4y ago
  That is crazy. What a fall from grace for Forbes. It is possible to write regulations to prevent blackhat SEO? I keep thinking about it. Why don't all websites eventually rent their reputation to the highest bidder, but in a sneaky blackhat SEO way? I think many do. <sad face> The modern web feels like 50% great and 50% terrible. It is a hostile landscape to navigate! Twenty years ago, Forbes was considered an excellent business magazine in the United States. For a while (last few years), I was "fooled" when I saw yet-another click-baity / poorly-researched Forbes piece. Then someone (here?) pointed out that Forbes has the "contributors" section with far lower editoral standards (err... asymptotically approaching zero!?). The contributor stuff is just rubbish. I think blocking it on HN is too much, but, please, stop upvoting this crap from Forbes contributors.
  • ghaff 4y ago
    I do think Forbes sold its soul for clicks and I don't have any first-hand knowledge of how their contributors and other third-party content works these days. That said, most of the trade press for example uses outside contributors--sometimes paid, often not. As I wrote elsewhere, there are various problematic aspects to the arrangement but there's usually enough editorial oversight to present blatant conflicts of interest around promoting a company, etc.