3 ms·

The near-bot responses from people who do not clearly identify that they work at this company are very frustrating. This feels like using HN for manufactured ma

The near-bot responses from people who do not clearly identify that they work at this company are very frustrating. This feels like using HN for manufactured marketing campaigns. For instance, Take CShorten's last two responses to threads that do not clearly identify that they are direct marketing for Weaviate. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=36670548 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=36670548 Thanks so much for sharing! https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=36760269 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=36760269 Loved this paper - so much opportunity to explore Retrieval-Augmented Generation with these longer input LLMs + Vector Databases & Search! Take another example of a user whose submission CShorten commented on: https://news.ycombinator.com/threads?id=bobvanluijt https://news.ycombinator.com/threads?id=bobvanluijt The overwhelming majority of these comments are _spam_. If you work at Weaviate, I'd recommend you stop doing this stuff. I'm way more likely to look at a competitor who feels less like a bot network.

freedomben 3y ago
IMHO, having employees (and otherwise affiliated) come to the thread can be a huge positive for the conversation, but it is indeed very important to disclose the affiliation! Don't fall into the trap of "well I'm just commenting my personal opinion, I don't need to disclose." I think you can make a perfectly logical and reasonable argument about why it should be fine, but in the end it doesn't matter. It will backfire because it's been abused to the nth degree in the past and now people's antennae are up. Transparency around affiliation is key. If you're commenting something of substance, then people will appreciate it and value your comment. If you're not adding anything substantive, then it's best not to comment at all.
- etiennedi 3y ago
  Thanks, appreciate your perspective. This is much more insightful than just "affiliated==botnet". I agree that this can be a huge positive and - at least for me - that was the motivation for wanting to be active in the comments; to see if there are any challenging questions, feedback, etc. As a HN user, I often go straight to the comments and only look at the submission if there's an interesting discussion there. I can totally see how spammy-looking comments with an undisclosed affiliation can have the exact opposite effect. (affiliated with Weaviate)
  - nostrebored 3y ago
    Nobody said affiliated equals botnet. You have accounts which go into discussions about Weaviate and write low quality comments that are essentially spam. They have no other real HN history. Do you not think that the comments in here could’ve been generated by bots? Stop it.
CShorten 3y ago
Hey all, my apologies for these comments! I will be more mindful of this going forward!

freedomben 3y ago

IMHO, having employees (and otherwise affiliated) come to the thread can be a huge positive for the conversation, but it is indeed very important to disclose the affiliation! Don't fall into the trap of "well I'm just commenting my personal opinion, I don't need to disclose." I think you can make a perfectly logical and reasonable argument about why it should be fine, but in the end it doesn't matter. It will backfire because it's been abused to the nth degree in the past and now people's antennae are up. Transparency around affiliation is key. If you're commenting something of substance, then people will appreciate it and value your comment. If you're not adding anything substantive, then it's best not to comment at all.

etiennedi 3y ago
Thanks, appreciate your perspective. This is much more insightful than just "affiliated==botnet". I agree that this can be a huge positive and - at least for me - that was the motivation for wanting to be active in the comments; to see if there are any challenging questions, feedback, etc. As a HN user, I often go straight to the comments and only look at the submission if there's an interesting discussion there. I can totally see how spammy-looking comments with an undisclosed affiliation can have the exact opposite effect. (affiliated with Weaviate)
- nostrebored 3y ago
  Nobody said affiliated equals botnet. You have accounts which go into discussions about Weaviate and write low quality comments that are essentially spam. They have no other real HN history. Do you not think that the comments in here could’ve been generated by bots? Stop it.

CShorten 3y ago

Hey all, my apologies for these comments! I will be more mindful of this going forward!