3 ms·

This is egregious linkbait. The author acts as if Alex wrote the Times article. If he had, he would have disclosed that he was a founder of CO2Stats. But he d

by pg 18y ago

This is egregious linkbait. The author acts as if Alex wrote the Times article. If he had, he would have disclosed that he was a founder of CO2Stats. But he didn't write the article; he was just quoted in it. Anyone who's been quoted in an article knows how little control you have in that situation. More often than not the reporter has some agenda and all he wants is quotes to suit it. So it is here: I happened to see Alex immediately after he talked to the Times reporter, and he was frustrated then that the reporter hadn't wanted to hear about anything except the carbon emissions caused by Google searches. Which, in typical reporter fashion, he then proceeded to present in the most simplistic and controversial way. The author of the present article has done the same thing in the opposite direction, replying to linkbait with linkbait. If he'd really wanted to see what Alex had to say about these issues, he could have looked on CO2Stats' site.

illumen 18y ago
Full disclosure: pg(through ycombinator) is an investor in CO2Stats.
- pg 18y ago
  I assumed anyone who read News.YC would know that, e.g. http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=276229 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=276229 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=281157 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=281157 but there have been so many new users lately that I suppose there might be some who didn't realize it. I'm not sure what the convention should be about identifying YC alumni in link titles. Putting (YC S08) after company names is awkward and only intermittently done. I've considered displaying them in a slightly different color instead. If anyone has other suggestions, let me know.
  - gravitycop 18y ago
    Putting (YC S08) after company names is awkward and only intermittently done. If part of the problem is labor-intensiveness, I would suggest automating, or semi-automating (where a suspected YC-funded name gets auto-flagged for tag-approval), the tagging process. (Alternate name spellings could be added continuously over time to the auto-flag-list.) This might achieve uniform display with minimal labor expense. I agree that a different color could reduce the display awkwardness (though I often wonder in such cases if colorblind users will miss the information).
fnazeeri 18y ago
PG: (1) Linkbait? Egregious? Come on. I'm a fan (of YC) and have no need for, interest in or motive to linkbait. Read my blog, dude. (2) Naivete? You've given thousands of interviews. I've given hundreds. Seriously, when did you not know the angle the reporter was pursuing? I can say zero (but then I've not been the target of 60 Minutes). At best Alex was naive and at worst he was abetting a greenmailer. (3) CO2stats has the right goal. I have no beef with, in fact I emphatically support, the objective. My job is to support green issues. That said, we have to be conscious of our means and greenmail can't be one of them. 'nuf said.
- pg 18y ago
  I don't know about you, but I find it's impossible to control the conversation with a reporter. A professional like a PR person or a press secretary may be able to have a whole conversation without saying anything that can be misconstrued, but no ordinary person can-- especially not when they're excited about an idea. You say one or two hundred sentences, and they pick the one that, quoted in isolation, will seem the most controversial. I was even hosed this way once by Steven Levy, who is one of my favorite reporters. He came to several dinners during one YC cycle. I must have talked to him for hours. I explained all the nuances of how YC works. Out of all that he ends up quoting me as saying that someone who turned us down would be failing an IQ test. [And before anyone starts jumping up and down about that one again, I meant it in the narrow sense of someone who didn't understand that all we have to do is improve a startup's prospects by 6.4% (http://paulgraham.com/equity.html http://paulgraham.com/equity.html) for the founders to end up net ahead.] But you can't just blow off the press. The best you can hope for is that if you do a lot of interviews, collectively the resulting articles will form a sort of Giacometti drawing of the truth.
gravitycop 18y ago
Alex [...] was frustrated then that the reporter hadn't wanted to hear about anything except the carbon emissions caused by Google searches. Which, in typical reporter fashion, he then proceeded to present in the most simplistic and controversial way. There are people who know how to talk to reporters. It is an established art that is taught to political activists. http://www.google.com/search?q=%22how+to+talk+to+reporters%22 http://www.google.com/search?q=%22how+to+talk+to+reporters%2... It is not necessarily the fault of reporters that their published articles are predictably sensationalist. They are controlled, and edited, by editors. Editors are, in turn, controlled by distributions of media-consumers. Consumers control editors control reporters.

by pg 18y ago

illumen 18y ago

Full disclosure: pg(through ycombinator) is an investor in CO2Stats.

pg 18y ago
I assumed anyone who read News.YC would know that, e.g. http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=276229 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=276229 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=281157 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=281157 but there have been so many new users lately that I suppose there might be some who didn't realize it. I'm not sure what the convention should be about identifying YC alumni in link titles. Putting (YC S08) after company names is awkward and only intermittently done. I've considered displaying them in a slightly different color instead. If anyone has other suggestions, let me know.
- gravitycop 18y ago
  Putting (YC S08) after company names is awkward and only intermittently done. If part of the problem is labor-intensiveness, I would suggest automating, or semi-automating (where a suspected YC-funded name gets auto-flagged for tag-approval), the tagging process. (Alternate name spellings could be added continuously over time to the auto-flag-list.) This might achieve uniform display with minimal labor expense. I agree that a different color could reduce the display awkwardness (though I often wonder in such cases if colorblind users will miss the information).

fnazeeri 18y ago

PG: (1) Linkbait? Egregious? Come on. I'm a fan (of YC) and have no need for, interest in or motive to linkbait. Read my blog, dude. (2) Naivete? You've given thousands of interviews. I've given hundreds. Seriously, when did you not know the angle the reporter was pursuing? I can say zero (but then I've not been the target of 60 Minutes). At best Alex was naive and at worst he was abetting a greenmailer. (3) CO2stats has the right goal. I have no beef with, in fact I emphatically support, the objective. My job is to support green issues. That said, we have to be conscious of our means and greenmail can't be one of them. 'nuf said.

pg 18y ago
I don't know about you, but I find it's impossible to control the conversation with a reporter. A professional like a PR person or a press secretary may be able to have a whole conversation without saying anything that can be misconstrued, but no ordinary person can-- especially not when they're excited about an idea. You say one or two hundred sentences, and they pick the one that, quoted in isolation, will seem the most controversial. I was even hosed this way once by Steven Levy, who is one of my favorite reporters. He came to several dinners during one YC cycle. I must have talked to him for hours. I explained all the nuances of how YC works. Out of all that he ends up quoting me as saying that someone who turned us down would be failing an IQ test. [And before anyone starts jumping up and down about that one again, I meant it in the narrow sense of someone who didn't understand that all we have to do is improve a startup's prospects by 6.4% (http://paulgraham.com/equity.html http://paulgraham.com/equity.html) for the founders to end up net ahead.] But you can't just blow off the press. The best you can hope for is that if you do a lot of interviews, collectively the resulting articles will form a sort of Giacometti drawing of the truth.

gravitycop 18y ago

Alex [...] was frustrated then that the reporter hadn't wanted to hear about anything except the carbon emissions caused by Google searches. Which, in typical reporter fashion, he then proceeded to present in the most simplistic and controversial way. There are people who know how to talk to reporters. It is an established art that is taught to political activists. http://www.google.com/search?q=%22how+to+talk+to+reporters%22 http://www.google.com/search?q=%22how+to+talk+to+reporters%2... It is not necessarily the fault of reporters that their published articles are predictably sensationalist. They are controlled, and edited, by editors. Editors are, in turn, controlled by distributions of media-consumers. Consumers control editors control reporters.