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As a result, any company invested in by Andreessen Horowitz is now of lesser value, lower integrity, and less worth of promotion in my opinion. We can talk and

As a result, any company invested in by Andreessen Horowitz is now of lesser value, lower integrity, and less worth of promotion in my opinion. We can talk and discuss and debate "free market" and monetizing content and whatever other rationalization you have for this investment, but in the end, BuzzFeed is not real journalism and does not conduct itself ethically (looking at you, BuzzFeed writers taking content from Reddit and only sometimes giving credit), and as a result, I think that's a message AH is sending, "integrity, ethics, and quality is not important, just $$$" Edit: once again, anything that goes against the grain of the HN-hivemind is being downvoted without explanation :-) For a site that prides itself in not being Reddit, HN sure acts like Reddit wrt downvotes.

aaronbrethorst 12y ago
A16Z also invested in PandoDaily: http://www.crunchbase.com/organization/pandodaily http://www.crunchbase.com/organization/pandodaily
- mkal_tsr 12y ago
  Thanks! I'm going to add that site to my blacklist of sites not to visit. I'm serious on that. I can't vote investments out of office, but I can stop using sites/services and stop promoting them when they take investments from VCs/investors with questionable ethical investments. I'm sure it's a (somewhat) financially sound investment, but that doesn't mean I will go along with it as a consumer or (bootstrapped) startup founder. Honesty and integrity have become null and void in Silicon Valley and I'm completely fed up with the bullshit. Cut the crap already, ya know? It's the same beef I have with the founders that try to save face when a similar product or service comes out. I know they're frustrated/upset/disappointed, but the whole, "oh, they're a good service too, btw our product..." crap that I've seen on HN lately. I'm well aware that my idealism does not make perfect business sense, but business is not the end all be all of life, and I'm completely over Silicon Valley propping up bullshit to market bullshit with more bullshit on top. One of these days there will be a VC firm that only invests in transparent and ethically-sound businesses, and I will be doing whatever I can to give my money to those start-ups.
Kiro 12y ago
Your comment is the essence of the HN hivemind so not sure what you're talking about. Try posting a positive comment about BuzzFeed and you will get downvoted to oblivion.
- mkal_tsr 12y ago
  The essence of HN hivemind is to worship the "free market" and that capitalism is the end all be all, IMO (that's my experience from having lurked here for several years). Criticizing one of the biggest VCs for HN startups received multiple downvotes and yet no one explained their reasoning for the downvotes, where I was factually incorrect in what I said, etc. My comment wrt the downvotes is that HN users loves to claim that they're not at all like Reddit, yet having lurked there for 5+ years (with multiple accounts for the same time), Reddit is at least more honest with the whole, "I don't agree with your opinion, have a downvote" whereas HN is a more silent downvote. I don't care that I'm downvoted, that's fine by me (muh fake internet pointz!), but to see how often HN users try to feel smug and superior over other communities while doing the same thing is frankly hilarious and sad.
  - Kiro 12y ago
    I don't know if I agree. I get the feeling the majority of people on HN are left-wing. Just look at the comment threads about basic income.
    - icebraining 12y ago
      I think there's plenty of US-liberals in HN too, but it should be noted that there are self-labeled capitalist libertarians advocating for BIG, at least as a "less-bad" welfare system. See e.g. Bleeding Heart Libertarians[1] or the discussions on Cato[2]. [1] http://bleedingheartlibertarians.com/ http://bleedingheartlibertarians.com/ [2] http://www.cato-unbound.org/2014/08/04/matt-zwolinski/pragmatic-libertarian-case-basic-income-guarantee http://www.cato-unbound.org/2014/08/04/matt-zwolinski/pragma...
tomp 12y ago
That's like saying "Facebook isn't a real social network" (only an online social network). Doesn't really matter, they were still a good investment.
blumkvist 12y ago
You are the epitome of hackernews-er.
- mkal_tsr 12y ago
  If you say so :-)
nikcub 12y ago
Buzfeed longform is really good, the idea is that they want to do more of this and with video as well: http://www.buzzfeed.com/longform http://www.buzzfeed.com/longform This was a great story: http://www.buzzfeed.com/susanelizabethshepard/wildcatting-a-strippers-guide-to-the-modern-american-boomtow http://www.buzzfeed.com/susanelizabethshepard/wildcatting-a-...
pierre 12y ago
Buzzfeed is not a Journalist company, it's an entertainment / advertisement company. What AH bet on was a new way to serve Ads (Native advertising) to costumer, and a business with exploding revenues (30M$ in 2012, 60M$ in 2013, 120M$ planed in 2014, ...). It will be crazy for AH to let this opportunity to invest go away.
dang 12y ago
It's against the HN guidelines to go on about getting downvoted. Please don't. Complaints about the HN hive-mind are also tedious. And they're (mostly) evenly distributed across ideologies, so they say more about the complainer than they do about HN.
- mkal_tsr 12y ago
  > It's against the HN guidelines to go on about getting downvoted. Please don't. Technically it's not, it's discouraged, direct quote: > Resist complaining about being downmodded. I have no qualms with downvotes, but I do have issue with people not explaining their rational for either up or downvotes. By simply downvoting/upvoting and moving on, discussion and debate cannot occur and no one can have their opinion challenged.
  - lotharbot 12y ago
    There are an order of magnitude more votes than comments on HN. Asking people to supply a comment with every vote would quickly degrade the signal, overwhelming it with noisy "I agree" or "you're wrong"s. People occasionally explain downvotes. They are not obligated to.
    - read 12y ago
      Good observation. Why aren't they obligated to? You don't have to ask people to supply a comment for every upvote. But you can ask them for downvotes. There are an order of magnitude less downvotes than upvotes.

aaronbrethorst 12y ago

A16Z also invested in PandoDaily: http://www.crunchbase.com/organization/pandodaily http://www.crunchbase.com/organization/pandodaily

mkal_tsr 12y ago
Thanks! I'm going to add that site to my blacklist of sites not to visit. I'm serious on that. I can't vote investments out of office, but I can stop using sites/services and stop promoting them when they take investments from VCs/investors with questionable ethical investments. I'm sure it's a (somewhat) financially sound investment, but that doesn't mean I will go along with it as a consumer or (bootstrapped) startup founder. Honesty and integrity have become null and void in Silicon Valley and I'm completely fed up with the bullshit. Cut the crap already, ya know? It's the same beef I have with the founders that try to save face when a similar product or service comes out. I know they're frustrated/upset/disappointed, but the whole, "oh, they're a good service too, btw our product..." crap that I've seen on HN lately. I'm well aware that my idealism does not make perfect business sense, but business is not the end all be all of life, and I'm completely over Silicon Valley propping up bullshit to market bullshit with more bullshit on top. One of these days there will be a VC firm that only invests in transparent and ethically-sound businesses, and I will be doing whatever I can to give my money to those start-ups.

Kiro 12y ago

Your comment is the essence of the HN hivemind so not sure what you're talking about. Try posting a positive comment about BuzzFeed and you will get downvoted to oblivion.

mkal_tsr 12y ago
The essence of HN hivemind is to worship the "free market" and that capitalism is the end all be all, IMO (that's my experience from having lurked here for several years). Criticizing one of the biggest VCs for HN startups received multiple downvotes and yet no one explained their reasoning for the downvotes, where I was factually incorrect in what I said, etc. My comment wrt the downvotes is that HN users loves to claim that they're not at all like Reddit, yet having lurked there for 5+ years (with multiple accounts for the same time), Reddit is at least more honest with the whole, "I don't agree with your opinion, have a downvote" whereas HN is a more silent downvote. I don't care that I'm downvoted, that's fine by me (muh fake internet pointz!), but to see how often HN users try to feel smug and superior over other communities while doing the same thing is frankly hilarious and sad.
- Kiro 12y ago
  I don't know if I agree. I get the feeling the majority of people on HN are left-wing. Just look at the comment threads about basic income.
  - icebraining 12y ago
    I think there's plenty of US-liberals in HN too, but it should be noted that there are self-labeled capitalist libertarians advocating for BIG, at least as a "less-bad" welfare system. See e.g. Bleeding Heart Libertarians[1] or the discussions on Cato[2]. [1] http://bleedingheartlibertarians.com/ http://bleedingheartlibertarians.com/ [2] http://www.cato-unbound.org/2014/08/04/matt-zwolinski/pragmatic-libertarian-case-basic-income-guarantee http://www.cato-unbound.org/2014/08/04/matt-zwolinski/pragma...

tomp 12y ago

That's like saying "Facebook isn't a real social network" (only an online social network). Doesn't really matter, they were still a good investment.

blumkvist 12y ago

You are the epitome of hackernews-er.

mkal_tsr 12y ago
If you say so :-)

nikcub 12y ago

Buzfeed longform is really good, the idea is that they want to do more of this and with video as well: http://www.buzzfeed.com/longform http://www.buzzfeed.com/longform This was a great story: http://www.buzzfeed.com/susanelizabethshepard/wildcatting-a-strippers-guide-to-the-modern-american-boomtow http://www.buzzfeed.com/susanelizabethshepard/wildcatting-a-...

pierre 12y ago

Buzzfeed is not a Journalist company, it's an entertainment / advertisement company. What AH bet on was a new way to serve Ads (Native advertising) to costumer, and a business with exploding revenues (30M$ in 2012, 60M$ in 2013, 120M$ planed in 2014, ...). It will be crazy for AH to let this opportunity to invest go away.

dang 12y ago

It's against the HN guidelines to go on about getting downvoted. Please don't. Complaints about the HN hive-mind are also tedious. And they're (mostly) evenly distributed across ideologies, so they say more about the complainer than they do about HN.

mkal_tsr 12y ago
> It's against the HN guidelines to go on about getting downvoted. Please don't. Technically it's not, it's discouraged, direct quote: > Resist complaining about being downmodded. I have no qualms with downvotes, but I do have issue with people not explaining their rational for either up or downvotes. By simply downvoting/upvoting and moving on, discussion and debate cannot occur and no one can have their opinion challenged.
- lotharbot 12y ago
  There are an order of magnitude more votes than comments on HN. Asking people to supply a comment with every vote would quickly degrade the signal, overwhelming it with noisy "I agree" or "you're wrong"s. People occasionally explain downvotes. They are not obligated to.
  - read 12y ago
    Good observation. Why aren't they obligated to? You don't have to ask people to supply a comment for every upvote. But you can ask them for downvotes. There are an order of magnitude less downvotes than upvotes.