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Bit afraid about that. Honestly it is suprising how spam free HN is, so maybe they have some good anti spam system in place. Also i think it would make sense to

by jcmp 3y ago

Bit afraid about that. Honestly it is suprising how spam free HN is, so maybe they have some good anti spam system in place. Also i think it would make sense to set all outside links to "nofollow" so google ingores them and therefore it is less interesting for SEO.

MrBlueIncognito 3y ago
That would also eliminate any positive effect that HN has on Google search results.
sebzim4500 3y ago
I wonder if nofollow actually does anything nowadays. I feel like the rules that used to be enforced have been replaced with hacky 'AI' that have been hacked together by thousands of SWEs trying to improve some metric for their promotion packet.
- jcmp 3y ago
  the "google way" would be to use instead of "nofollow" "ugc" which stands for user generated content.[1] In the same document they state "We'll generally treat them as we did with nofollow before and not consider them for ranking purposes". However they lied often about their ranking signals ;) https://developers.google.com/search/blog/2019/09/evolving-nofollow-new-ways-to-identify https://developers.google.com/search/blog/2019/09/evolving-n...
  - samtho 3y ago
    Did Google really say that? It makes sense to treat it as a different category of link. An organic back link from a blog or website is putting the weight of the website’s name/reputation behind it whilst UGC has users putting their name/reputation on it (as it relates to their relationship with the originating website). The latter is not worthless as the website ultimately allows it, it not as strong as a signal as an organic backlink.
    - xp84 3y ago
      I’m not comfortable with any endorsement being inferred toward any link that is UGC, even from something the website tacitly “allows” by not deleting it. For the majority of websites there’s plenty of absolute trash lurking in all the Les travelled parts where nobody cares or nobody has seen it. But the bots will always see it.
spacebacon 3y ago
It gets its fair share of spam but the platform is very effective at moderation. Show dead and scroll new for examples.
TheAceOfHearts 3y ago
There's definitely a bit of influence / perception manipulation on HN. A few years back I heard a story that a tech company would monitor HN for certain keywords, and if their product or category was ever brought up or mentioned multiple developers would always show up to engage on the topic. This isn't quite spamming or cheating the system, but it's a very effective tactic for shifting public perception.
- bbor 3y ago
  OTOH that’s kinda the utopian version of open source - a public forum where you can engage with stakeholders on demand, as long as others find your critique/question interesting enough to upvote. God I love hacker news… their insanely outdated moderation tools are a shame, but I can’t lie, holding a big stick makes for a peaceful forum.
- tech234a 3y ago
  You might be referring to GitLab: https://handbook.gitlab.com/handbook/marketing/developer-relations/developer-advocacy/hacker-news/ https://handbook.gitlab.com/handbook/marketing/developer-rel... (hi to those from GitLab watching #hn-mentions on Slack)
  - john_cogs 3y ago
    :waves:
    - uoaei 3y ago
      It's a curious division between "old internet" and "new internet" (those on the *chans may have parallel but slightly different terminology for this dichotomy) to see people use BBS-style vs IRC-style emotive expressions.
  - tivert 3y ago
    > You might be referring to GitLab: https://handbook.gitlab.com/handbook/marketing/developer-relations/developer-advocacy/hacker-news/ https://handbook.gitlab.com/handbook/marketing/developer-rel... That's really interesting that they'd disclose their strategy so publicly. On the one hand, I can't see it doing much harm. On the other hand, wouldn't it be somewhat self-defeating or even embarrassing to confess that you're doing that? One could probably reasonably assume that many companies have a social media strategy like that, but to have people know that's the strategy would probably drain away at least some of the goodwill provided by the posts.
ldjkfkdsjnv 3y ago
Theres alot more undervocer product pumping than you would think
xanderlewis 3y ago
Once you get enough karma (I can’t remember what the number is) you’ll be able to see dead submissions. If you look at new you’ll see that there are spam posts coming in every couple of minutes or so. They’re just very effectively detected, as you suspected.
- lolinder 3y ago
  It's not a karma gate, it's gated behind the showdead setting in your profile, which everyone has access to.
  - xanderlewis 3y ago
    Ah — I stand corrected.
    - wlesieutre 3y ago
      The karma-gated part is being able to vouch dead comments
- jcmp 3y ago
  I hope the links are getting set to nofollow so there really isn’t any value anymore for the spammer checked: They are nofollow links
whiterknight 3y ago
You dont recognize the spam because the bad ones are removed. Good marketing targets its audience, and influences people who are not associated to repeat its talking points.
jasonjmcghee 3y ago
People are starting to copy/paste from ChatGPT / equivalent. It's not spam, but it just says nothing and dilutes the conversation.

by jcmp 3y ago

MrBlueIncognito 3y ago

That would also eliminate any positive effect that HN has on Google search results.

sebzim4500 3y ago

I wonder if nofollow actually does anything nowadays. I feel like the rules that used to be enforced have been replaced with hacky 'AI' that have been hacked together by thousands of SWEs trying to improve some metric for their promotion packet.

jcmp 3y ago
the "google way" would be to use instead of "nofollow" "ugc" which stands for user generated content.[1] In the same document they state "We'll generally treat them as we did with nofollow before and not consider them for ranking purposes". However they lied often about their ranking signals ;) https://developers.google.com/search/blog/2019/09/evolving-nofollow-new-ways-to-identify https://developers.google.com/search/blog/2019/09/evolving-n...
- samtho 3y ago
  Did Google really say that? It makes sense to treat it as a different category of link. An organic back link from a blog or website is putting the weight of the website’s name/reputation behind it whilst UGC has users putting their name/reputation on it (as it relates to their relationship with the originating website). The latter is not worthless as the website ultimately allows it, it not as strong as a signal as an organic backlink.
  - xp84 3y ago
    I’m not comfortable with any endorsement being inferred toward any link that is UGC, even from something the website tacitly “allows” by not deleting it. For the majority of websites there’s plenty of absolute trash lurking in all the Les travelled parts where nobody cares or nobody has seen it. But the bots will always see it.

spacebacon 3y ago

It gets its fair share of spam but the platform is very effective at moderation. Show dead and scroll new for examples.

TheAceOfHearts 3y ago

There's definitely a bit of influence / perception manipulation on HN. A few years back I heard a story that a tech company would monitor HN for certain keywords, and if their product or category was ever brought up or mentioned multiple developers would always show up to engage on the topic. This isn't quite spamming or cheating the system, but it's a very effective tactic for shifting public perception.

bbor 3y ago
OTOH that’s kinda the utopian version of open source - a public forum where you can engage with stakeholders on demand, as long as others find your critique/question interesting enough to upvote. God I love hacker news… their insanely outdated moderation tools are a shame, but I can’t lie, holding a big stick makes for a peaceful forum.
tech234a 3y ago
You might be referring to GitLab: https://handbook.gitlab.com/handbook/marketing/developer-relations/developer-advocacy/hacker-news/ https://handbook.gitlab.com/handbook/marketing/developer-rel... (hi to those from GitLab watching #hn-mentions on Slack)
- john_cogs 3y ago
  :waves:
  - uoaei 3y ago
    It's a curious division between "old internet" and "new internet" (those on the *chans may have parallel but slightly different terminology for this dichotomy) to see people use BBS-style vs IRC-style emotive expressions.
- tivert 3y ago
  > You might be referring to GitLab: https://handbook.gitlab.com/handbook/marketing/developer-relations/developer-advocacy/hacker-news/ https://handbook.gitlab.com/handbook/marketing/developer-rel... That's really interesting that they'd disclose their strategy so publicly. On the one hand, I can't see it doing much harm. On the other hand, wouldn't it be somewhat self-defeating or even embarrassing to confess that you're doing that? One could probably reasonably assume that many companies have a social media strategy like that, but to have people know that's the strategy would probably drain away at least some of the goodwill provided by the posts.

ldjkfkdsjnv 3y ago

Theres alot more undervocer product pumping than you would think

xanderlewis 3y ago

Once you get enough karma (I can’t remember what the number is) you’ll be able to see dead submissions. If you look at new you’ll see that there are spam posts coming in every couple of minutes or so. They’re just very effectively detected, as you suspected.

lolinder 3y ago
It's not a karma gate, it's gated behind the showdead setting in your profile, which everyone has access to.
- xanderlewis 3y ago
  Ah — I stand corrected.
  - wlesieutre 3y ago
    The karma-gated part is being able to vouch dead comments
jcmp 3y ago
I hope the links are getting set to nofollow so there really isn’t any value anymore for the spammer checked: They are nofollow links

whiterknight 3y ago

You dont recognize the spam because the bad ones are removed. Good marketing targets its audience, and influences people who are not associated to repeat its talking points.

jasonjmcghee 3y ago

People are starting to copy/paste from ChatGPT / equivalent. It's not spam, but it just says nothing and dilutes the conversation.