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There have been lots of negative comments on 'year in review' or 'launch result' posts like this (see [1], [2] and [3]). However there are a few reasons why I b

There have been lots of negative comments on 'year in review' or 'launch result' posts like this (see [1], [2] and [3]). However there are a few reasons why I believe HN should respect these as valid, interesting and "On Topic" : 'Anything that good hackers would find interesting'. - Of Interest. It's hard to disagree that posts like this are of interest to hackers and HN readers. The four posts mentioned (linked, [1], [2] and [3]) are scientific and analytical. They go in to detail about how four technically/graphically minded gentlemen have failed or succeeded in their various startups and ideas. They offer an honest appraisal of their own decisions. - Honesty not Arrogance. Many self-absorbed posts are arrogant in their success stories. I see each of these as being honest and humble. This is certainly subjective but I believe them to be modest in their writings. - Education. HN can certainly learn from all three of these posts. I think patio11 put it well when he said: "I would hope that the six-thousand odd words of narrative in the post and copious linked material contains non-obvious useful tidbits such as "You can increase the sales of a mature, six-year old software company by over 60% solely by A/B testing while keeping all other factors constant." - Democratic(ish) Voting. Let's not forget that HN is largely driven by its readers. - Inspirational. I know that many people have taken great inspiration from these posts, particularly those wishing to move in to their own products or to write eBooks. One of those is http://brianfran.co/wroteabook/ http://brianfran.co/wroteabook/ who dedicated his book to Sacha Greif (sgdesign). If HN serves as an inspiration resource to encourage creativity and success, isn't that enough. Whilst not all agree, I would like to say A Very Well Done bdunn, patio11, sgdesign and nathanbarry and thank you for being honest, humble, educational and inspirational. [1] http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4982416 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4982416 [2] http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4982649 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4982649 [3] http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4974121 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4974121

larrys 14y ago
"Let's not forget that HN is largely driven by its readers." I would add that HN is also driven by the admins. The admins can decide what gets on the front page and what stays there. They are the gatekeeper to being able to gain votes to stay on that page (unless an admin decides to remove something?).
nikcub 14y ago
The negative reaction is more to do with the old community being invaded by these new types of posts - a lot of which focus on money (how I made $x in y days doing z), some sort of secret to being wealthy (top x tips on quitting your job and making your first million) or some sort of life shortcut. There are many sub communities within the broader startups and entrepreneurial fields, but what HN used to be was a group of people who were hackers first with interests in stories about other startups, new technology, implementing technology etc. There is an entire other subculture around working from home, the 4 hour work week, SEO, affiliate marketing, how to ship product online, how to write an ebook that can sell for $40 in 24 hours, the micro-ISV space etc. That later group, who would prefer to talk about how they sold $50k worth of software or ebooks, is much larger than the group of hacker entrepreneurs who would much rather read about the latest Javascript library, security exploit or scientific breakthrough. Business of Software, the forum that Joel Spolsky ran for micro-ISV's shut down and it seems everybody came flooding over to HN (or were coming over steadily over the past few years). This means more of that type of content. There can't be more than a few thousand technical (or want to be technical) entrepreneurs, while the group who are interested in breaking away from their career and becoming an ebook affiliate likely numbers in the millions. A lot of those negative comments are, I feel, from frustrated hacker entrepreneurs who know you can make $100k a year online and who don't want to hear that story again. I didn't click on any of those links when I saw the headlines (no offense to the authors, but it just doesn't interest me) and the only reason I clicked on this thread is because I couldn't believe that another thread that mentions an amount of money in the title had again made it to the top of HN. I have gone from clicking on 60-80% of HN headlines to now hitting 10%, on a good day. I bet that if I did click on one of those headlines, that I too would have left a smart-ass cynical comment as well, but i'm passed that stage of protesting submissions that I feel don't belong here and now just move on (except this thread). edit: I realize that I made some sweeping generalizations, I don't mean that people interested in SEO aren't hacker entrepreneurs, I just needed a way to define what are different groups of people in the audience here.
- bdunn 14y ago
  Author here. Trust me — I completely understand where you're coming from. With Planscope (my SaaS product) I'm getting to engineer a really rewarding product with Backbone.js and Ruby. However, because I'm bootstrapped, things like SEO and marketing are pretty important if I want to be able to keep making my house payments, so they interest me. I think marketing and engineering are completely complimentary. You can't have one without the other in this space. I need to know how to make money selling software or whatever else if I want to keep going, but I also am curious about the latest JS lib or whatever else to help build a sellable product. My goal with this and other posts has been to always show "hackers" that building software and running a business aren't mutually exclusive. Stories and inspiration from others helped me get to where I am today; and I hope that my story can help others. That's all :-)
lucian303 14y ago
All those negative commenters can shove it up their ass. This is one of the few really interesting posts in the last few _months_ on HN. If they can't see the connection between business and "hacking" (whatever the fuck that might be in their minds), they won't get very far in this industry. Either you figure out your personal business/life model (one and the same almost in the US), or you crash and burnout. Fuck the haters. So to speak. Period.

larrys 14y ago

"Let's not forget that HN is largely driven by its readers." I would add that HN is also driven by the admins. The admins can decide what gets on the front page and what stays there. They are the gatekeeper to being able to gain votes to stay on that page (unless an admin decides to remove something?).

nikcub 14y ago

The negative reaction is more to do with the old community being invaded by these new types of posts - a lot of which focus on money (how I made $x in y days doing z), some sort of secret to being wealthy (top x tips on quitting your job and making your first million) or some sort of life shortcut. There are many sub communities within the broader startups and entrepreneurial fields, but what HN used to be was a group of people who were hackers first with interests in stories about other startups, new technology, implementing technology etc. There is an entire other subculture around working from home, the 4 hour work week, SEO, affiliate marketing, how to ship product online, how to write an ebook that can sell for $40 in 24 hours, the micro-ISV space etc. That later group, who would prefer to talk about how they sold $50k worth of software or ebooks, is much larger than the group of hacker entrepreneurs who would much rather read about the latest Javascript library, security exploit or scientific breakthrough. Business of Software, the forum that Joel Spolsky ran for micro-ISV's shut down and it seems everybody came flooding over to HN (or were coming over steadily over the past few years). This means more of that type of content. There can't be more than a few thousand technical (or want to be technical) entrepreneurs, while the group who are interested in breaking away from their career and becoming an ebook affiliate likely numbers in the millions. A lot of those negative comments are, I feel, from frustrated hacker entrepreneurs who know you can make $100k a year online and who don't want to hear that story again. I didn't click on any of those links when I saw the headlines (no offense to the authors, but it just doesn't interest me) and the only reason I clicked on this thread is because I couldn't believe that another thread that mentions an amount of money in the title had again made it to the top of HN. I have gone from clicking on 60-80% of HN headlines to now hitting 10%, on a good day. I bet that if I did click on one of those headlines, that I too would have left a smart-ass cynical comment as well, but i'm passed that stage of protesting submissions that I feel don't belong here and now just move on (except this thread). edit: I realize that I made some sweeping generalizations, I don't mean that people interested in SEO aren't hacker entrepreneurs, I just needed a way to define what are different groups of people in the audience here.

bdunn 14y ago
Author here. Trust me — I completely understand where you're coming from. With Planscope (my SaaS product) I'm getting to engineer a really rewarding product with Backbone.js and Ruby. However, because I'm bootstrapped, things like SEO and marketing are pretty important if I want to be able to keep making my house payments, so they interest me. I think marketing and engineering are completely complimentary. You can't have one without the other in this space. I need to know how to make money selling software or whatever else if I want to keep going, but I also am curious about the latest JS lib or whatever else to help build a sellable product. My goal with this and other posts has been to always show "hackers" that building software and running a business aren't mutually exclusive. Stories and inspiration from others helped me get to where I am today; and I hope that my story can help others. That's all :-)

lucian303 14y ago

All those negative commenters can shove it up their ass. This is one of the few really interesting posts in the last few _months_ on HN. If they can't see the connection between business and "hacking" (whatever the fuck that might be in their minds), they won't get very far in this industry. Either you figure out your personal business/life model (one and the same almost in the US), or you crash and burnout. Fuck the haters. So to speak. Period.