| <<Have you not realized that a decent amount of the users on HN are successful entrepreneurs?>> Yes I have realized that - it's hard not to notice that. <<If you ever become a successful entrepreneur, and have some good information to share, are venues like HN off limits? What people like Glenn Kelman are doing is offering valuable information in return for name recognition>> Of course they are not off limits. But my expectations are usually that the submitter is some random web-surfer. I think that if the submitter discloses that they are affiliated with or actually are the author then that's cool. By the way, I don't think "Bill Gates, My Hero" is good or valuable information. Similarly I do not find that this article contains good or valuable info, it's just zeitgeisty and filled with folksy homespun truths. In fact the two posts, posted one day after another seem designed to generate discusion for discussion's sake and feel like a cynical ploy to push traffic to the site. <<I "purchase" their information by enjoying it and sharing it with others, which returns value for the original author. For the HN crowd, that value seems to be name recognition, which leads to people talking about whatever project you are working on. So, you give other people value (information about experience), and in return any future project you put your name on benefits.>> I don't understand you here. We "purchase" nothing. We are being used as a commodity when someone uses the collective traffic we generate for hits or clicks. What name recognition? If I find some tech interesting I'll take note of the company or author but that's how life works. Name recognition for its own sake is meaningless. <<Futhermore, if he didn't post it here it may or may not ever be read.>> It would be if someone else found it valuable or interesting. That's the way these things work. I have no idea if an article by the CEO or an employee of a company gets upvoted purely because of who they are and not because of what the content of the submission is. <<Given the great discussion happening about this particular topic, I feel that would be an unfortunate loss.>> But as you say yourself it may have been read so there would have been no loss so no need to worry there then I guess. <<From these comments I have gleaned more information on marketing and the actual costs of certain types of marketing than I have in months. Thanks GlennKelman for instigating the discussion.>> That's great but that's neither here nor there in relation to my original complaint. You know I actually probably enjoy reading more or less the same stuff as you. In this case, alarm bells went off in my head - I'm sharing that sentiment with you. |