4 ms·

You lost me as soon as I saw users can create content. All platforms become bad as soon as you allow average Joe speak his mind. The only ones that somewhat s

You lost me as soon as I saw users can create content. All platforms become bad as soon as you allow average Joe speak his mind. The only ones that somewhat save themselves are the likes of HN and Reddit where it's all about discussing, but users are mostly anonymous and not trying to promote their brand.

brulard 2y ago
What would be a good alternative? Who is going to create that content? Corporations? Media? I don't get it
fliellerjulian 2y ago
Totally hear you and I agree that most platforms go downhill when the focus shifts to likes, followers, and constant posting. To clarify: OpenSpot doesn’t have a feed, followers, or any social mechanics. There’s no algorithm pushing content or encouraging endless posting. When we say “create content,” we mean things like a short video intro, showcasing past work, or writing a quick blurb about what makes you unique — all on your profile, not for public engagement farming.
- markx2 2y ago
  > all on your profile, not for public engagement farming. The spammers, the SEO farmers, the porn merchants won't care. A link is a link. I've been tackling spam for 15+ years and you will get hit. I wish it were not the case, but it is. Expect it.
  - eastbound 2y ago
    The opposite of spam is machine-generated content. All platforms have it, at least to pretend the platform is not empty at the beginning.
    - hk__2 2y ago
      > The opposite of spam is machine-generated content. Spam is not machine-generated content?
      - Fuzzwah 2y ago
        You might be interested in my next start-up; hand crafted, bespoke and artisanal spam as a service.
  - fakedang 2y ago
    I think you got it wrong. There isn't a feed that people can see when they log in. There's just profile pages, like walls on Facebook. Someone can see your content if they go to your wall, but they won't be fed your content. At least that's what I think this concept is. If it is so, I don't see the problem with that. Sure, you'll have the fake-happy and fake-positive content, but they'll not be force fed to you.
  - hn_throwaway_99 2y ago
    Yes, he will get hit. At the same time, it's not at all the same problem as algorithmic engagement. If someone puts up a spam page that I never see, I don't care that much. There are also some technical things he can do to reduce e.g. the SEO value of any content that is posted on the site like nofollow.
    - what 2y ago
      >nofollow Most links are nofollow these days. Those still provide SEO value. Google will find your site very suspicious if your dofollow to nofollow ratio is too high.
- winwang 2y ago
  There is always an algorithm, explicit or not, "malicious" or not. For implicit algorithms, outside of the issues/misincentives of time-sorted feeds, there's also game theory and behavioral economics.
datadeft 2y ago
Do you think that there is form of communication where you reach a higher understanding? Are we average Joes on HN?
DeepSeaTortoise 2y ago
> All platforms become bad as soon as you allow average Joe speak his mind. Hard disagree on that one. Average Joe is perfectly fine. But I strongly agree on professional platforms allowing users to create content being an incredibly bad idea. A possibility turns into an obligation for success real quick. I have just about 0 interest in creating 10 posts per day to game some algorithm into promoting me. And neither would I like hiring someone who spends 80% of his time awake trying to game some algorithm into enlongating his job title.
- fliellerjulian 2y ago
  Yep and that’s exactly what we’re trying to avoid. Openspot has no algorithm, no feed, and no pressure to post daily. It’s not about creating content for engagement — it’s about helping people show their real value in a more human way than a PDF resume or a keyword-stuffed LinkedIn profile. You don’t need to “game” anything — a short video intro, a demo of your work, or just a few lines about what you’re great at is often enough to stand out. That’s the whole point: quality signals over content farming.
graemep 2y ago
> All platforms become bad as soon as you allow average Joe speak his mind. I do not think that is the big problem. The problem is what platforms promote: content that creates engagement.
- winwang 2y ago
  Hard to argue against engagment being good overall, but I think we need some kind of "regularization".
YetAnotherNick 2y ago
You said two conflicting things. HN and reddit is average Joe speaking their mind. The problem is not the average Joe, but the influencer culture where users are incentivised to increase their numbers.
zeroonetwothree 2y ago
You lost me when you said Reddit is a positive example of social media.
- lbourdages 2y ago
  It used to be, but that ship has sailed a long time ago.
- PaulHoule 2y ago
  I guess he’d consider Medium to be a behavioral sink too. (I had to facepalm when some guy told me I had to get on Medium because it was so amazing he got 70 views on an article, I had to break it to him that I thought 50,000 views was a lot of views [1]) [1] I accomplished that for the first time by writing a news article about an event a few months before it happened.
- otterley 2y ago
  It depends on the subreddit. Some are dumpster fires; others like r/woodworking are lovely.
adminm 2y ago
> All platforms become bad as soon as you allow average Joe speak his mind Perhaps not right when, but it becomes bad when you decide by yourself (or take advice from someone to pays you money) to show it to me.
cryptonector 2y ago
> You lost me as soon as I saw users can create content. It's a site for prospective employees/contractors. How do you expect someone to advertise themselves w/o creating any content? LinkedIn certainly allows user-created content.

brulard 2y ago

What would be a good alternative? Who is going to create that content? Corporations? Media? I don't get it

fliellerjulian 2y ago

Totally hear you and I agree that most platforms go downhill when the focus shifts to likes, followers, and constant posting. To clarify: OpenSpot doesn’t have a feed, followers, or any social mechanics. There’s no algorithm pushing content or encouraging endless posting. When we say “create content,” we mean things like a short video intro, showcasing past work, or writing a quick blurb about what makes you unique — all on your profile, not for public engagement farming.

markx2 2y ago
> all on your profile, not for public engagement farming. The spammers, the SEO farmers, the porn merchants won't care. A link is a link. I've been tackling spam for 15+ years and you will get hit. I wish it were not the case, but it is. Expect it.
- eastbound 2y ago
  The opposite of spam is machine-generated content. All platforms have it, at least to pretend the platform is not empty at the beginning.
  - hk__2 2y ago
    > The opposite of spam is machine-generated content. Spam is not machine-generated content?
    - Fuzzwah 2y ago
      You might be interested in my next start-up; hand crafted, bespoke and artisanal spam as a service.
- fakedang 2y ago
  I think you got it wrong. There isn't a feed that people can see when they log in. There's just profile pages, like walls on Facebook. Someone can see your content if they go to your wall, but they won't be fed your content. At least that's what I think this concept is. If it is so, I don't see the problem with that. Sure, you'll have the fake-happy and fake-positive content, but they'll not be force fed to you.
- hn_throwaway_99 2y ago
  Yes, he will get hit. At the same time, it's not at all the same problem as algorithmic engagement. If someone puts up a spam page that I never see, I don't care that much. There are also some technical things he can do to reduce e.g. the SEO value of any content that is posted on the site like nofollow.
  - what 2y ago
    >nofollow Most links are nofollow these days. Those still provide SEO value. Google will find your site very suspicious if your dofollow to nofollow ratio is too high.
winwang 2y ago
There is always an algorithm, explicit or not, "malicious" or not. For implicit algorithms, outside of the issues/misincentives of time-sorted feeds, there's also game theory and behavioral economics.

datadeft 2y ago

Do you think that there is form of communication where you reach a higher understanding? Are we average Joes on HN?

DeepSeaTortoise 2y ago

> All platforms become bad as soon as you allow average Joe speak his mind. Hard disagree on that one. Average Joe is perfectly fine. But I strongly agree on professional platforms allowing users to create content being an incredibly bad idea. A possibility turns into an obligation for success real quick. I have just about 0 interest in creating 10 posts per day to game some algorithm into promoting me. And neither would I like hiring someone who spends 80% of his time awake trying to game some algorithm into enlongating his job title.

fliellerjulian 2y ago
Yep and that’s exactly what we’re trying to avoid. Openspot has no algorithm, no feed, and no pressure to post daily. It’s not about creating content for engagement — it’s about helping people show their real value in a more human way than a PDF resume or a keyword-stuffed LinkedIn profile. You don’t need to “game” anything — a short video intro, a demo of your work, or just a few lines about what you’re great at is often enough to stand out. That’s the whole point: quality signals over content farming.

graemep 2y ago

> All platforms become bad as soon as you allow average Joe speak his mind. I do not think that is the big problem. The problem is what platforms promote: content that creates engagement.

winwang 2y ago
Hard to argue against engagment being good overall, but I think we need some kind of "regularization".

YetAnotherNick 2y ago

You said two conflicting things. HN and reddit is average Joe speaking their mind. The problem is not the average Joe, but the influencer culture where users are incentivised to increase their numbers.

zeroonetwothree 2y ago

You lost me when you said Reddit is a positive example of social media.

lbourdages 2y ago
It used to be, but that ship has sailed a long time ago.
PaulHoule 2y ago
I guess he’d consider Medium to be a behavioral sink too. (I had to facepalm when some guy told me I had to get on Medium because it was so amazing he got 70 views on an article, I had to break it to him that I thought 50,000 views was a lot of views [1]) [1] I accomplished that for the first time by writing a news article about an event a few months before it happened.
otterley 2y ago
It depends on the subreddit. Some are dumpster fires; others like r/woodworking are lovely.

adminm 2y ago

> All platforms become bad as soon as you allow average Joe speak his mind Perhaps not right when, but it becomes bad when you decide by yourself (or take advice from someone to pays you money) to show it to me.

cryptonector 2y ago

> You lost me as soon as I saw users can create content. It's a site for prospective employees/contractors. How do you expect someone to advertise themselves w/o creating any content? LinkedIn certainly allows user-created content.