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My goal with the mailing list post and the submission was to let as many Go users as possible that a new release is out and they should upgrade. Should I use a

by enneff 13y ago

My goal with the mailing list post and the submission was to let as many Go users as possible that a new release is out and they should upgrade. Should I use a minor release announcement as an occasion to get people more excited about Go? I'm not sure. I like the short and sweet nature of these point releases, and I'm wary of turning them into a marketing exercise. Otherwise, I do spend a lot of time telling people what's going on with Go. For instance, my presentation on what's new in Go 1.3 was at the top of HN for a day. Appreciate the feedback, though.

bsdetector 13y ago
So how is this different from any other spammer? You're get paid to use Hacker News as a Go mouthpiece to promote your product every chance you can take. The reason why you, a Google employee working on Go, shouldn't be submitting these stories is because you have a clear conflict of interest. You think that 5 changes totaling a few dozen lines of code is worth everybody's attention because you're in the thick of it. But really, a story like this being front page I think calls into question whether there is a voting ring or voting bot; I can't imagine more than a person or two actually looked at the changes and said this is important.
- enneff 13y ago
  No need to be so cynical. You may not be interested in Go, but many programmers are, and many of them read HN (and vote). You underestimate the size and enthusiasm of the Go community.
  - endersshadow 13y ago
    Right, so please add some summary of changes/content to this. I don't have time to go through SVN commit logs, but I'm interested in Go and use it in some side projects. I want to quickly be able to say, "What changed? Can I apply it to my projects?" Not having that is wildly frustrating when I see these "version releases" where I have no clue what's worth my time.
- Intermernet 13y ago
  As someone interested in Go, I looked at it because it was worth a look... I don't expect every HN post to be "important" as that differs from reader to reader. The fact that this ended up on the front page, and doesn't contain much easily consumable information for anyone not interested in Go, should possibly tempt you to have a look at the language, instead of assuming voting rings or bots. I personally have minimal interest in many topics that get covered on HN. I usually just don't click on them, but if they get enough coverage I'll usually check the topic out to see if my preconceptions were flawed.
  - bsdetector 13y ago
    See there you go. There's absolutely nothing in these 5 bug fixes of note, but I should be tempted to have a look at the language because of them? This story is just a shameless hackvertisement for Go. > instead of assuming voting rings or bots. I've several times in the past seen new stories critical of Go on reddit go from 1 to -20 in less than a minute. This stopped about when uriel died so I just assumed it was him, but maybe it's still going on HN. How do you explain this post being on the front page?
    - Intermernet 13y ago
      I explain it being it on the front page due to lots of people being interested in Go. The same way I explain posts related to startups, open source, patent law, Bitcoin (MtGox being the current star), the NSA etc. People are interested in different things, and HN is full of an incredibly disparate range of people. No need to assume foul play for this story, unless you'd also like to assume the same for the other categories listed above.
      - bsdetector 13y ago
        So in other words you are saying that people here will vote up any story about Go regardless of merit; seeing "Go" in the title makes it interesting to them. What is it about this story of a point release with five inconsequential bug fixes that is at all interesting?
- scott_s 13y ago
  People submit their own work to HN all the time. We encourage it.
SyneRyder 13y ago
For what it's worth, I'm happy to see the Go update announcement here. I only hack occasionally on Go so I haven't updated it in a while, but seeing this post has prompted me to download the latest version.
scott_s 13y ago
Anecdote: I have a general interest in the progress of Go, even though I don't program in it. I clicked through, saw no real content, and moved on to the comments to see if they would talk about what changed. I'm not going to try to parse svn commits - such things are written for people who know the code. These updates are a fantastic opportunity to talk about interesting technical points. What changed and why? You don't need to think about it as marketing, just an excuse for some quick-n-dirty tech talk.

by enneff 13y ago

bsdetector 13y ago

So how is this different from any other spammer? You're get paid to use Hacker News as a Go mouthpiece to promote your product every chance you can take. The reason why you, a Google employee working on Go, shouldn't be submitting these stories is because you have a clear conflict of interest. You think that 5 changes totaling a few dozen lines of code is worth everybody's attention because you're in the thick of it. But really, a story like this being front page I think calls into question whether there is a voting ring or voting bot; I can't imagine more than a person or two actually looked at the changes and said this is important.

enneff 13y ago
No need to be so cynical. You may not be interested in Go, but many programmers are, and many of them read HN (and vote). You underestimate the size and enthusiasm of the Go community.
- endersshadow 13y ago
  Right, so please add some summary of changes/content to this. I don't have time to go through SVN commit logs, but I'm interested in Go and use it in some side projects. I want to quickly be able to say, "What changed? Can I apply it to my projects?" Not having that is wildly frustrating when I see these "version releases" where I have no clue what's worth my time.
Intermernet 13y ago
As someone interested in Go, I looked at it because it was worth a look... I don't expect every HN post to be "important" as that differs from reader to reader. The fact that this ended up on the front page, and doesn't contain much easily consumable information for anyone not interested in Go, should possibly tempt you to have a look at the language, instead of assuming voting rings or bots. I personally have minimal interest in many topics that get covered on HN. I usually just don't click on them, but if they get enough coverage I'll usually check the topic out to see if my preconceptions were flawed.
- bsdetector 13y ago
  See there you go. There's absolutely nothing in these 5 bug fixes of note, but I should be tempted to have a look at the language because of them? This story is just a shameless hackvertisement for Go. > instead of assuming voting rings or bots. I've several times in the past seen new stories critical of Go on reddit go from 1 to -20 in less than a minute. This stopped about when uriel died so I just assumed it was him, but maybe it's still going on HN. How do you explain this post being on the front page?
  - Intermernet 13y ago
    I explain it being it on the front page due to lots of people being interested in Go. The same way I explain posts related to startups, open source, patent law, Bitcoin (MtGox being the current star), the NSA etc. People are interested in different things, and HN is full of an incredibly disparate range of people. No need to assume foul play for this story, unless you'd also like to assume the same for the other categories listed above.
    - bsdetector 13y ago
      So in other words you are saying that people here will vote up any story about Go regardless of merit; seeing "Go" in the title makes it interesting to them. What is it about this story of a point release with five inconsequential bug fixes that is at all interesting?
scott_s 13y ago
People submit their own work to HN all the time. We encourage it.

SyneRyder 13y ago

For what it's worth, I'm happy to see the Go update announcement here. I only hack occasionally on Go so I haven't updated it in a while, but seeing this post has prompted me to download the latest version.

scott_s 13y ago

Anecdote: I have a general interest in the progress of Go, even though I don't program in it. I clicked through, saw no real content, and moved on to the comments to see if they would talk about what changed. I'm not going to try to parse svn commits - such things are written for people who know the code. These updates are a fantastic opportunity to talk about interesting technical points. What changed and why? You don't need to think about it as marketing, just an excuse for some quick-n-dirty tech talk.