Hacker News new | ask | show | jobs
by metadat 1320 days ago
Mr. Crowley, did you forget to mention / disclose your association and financial interest tied to this product?

For context, https://www.linkedin.com/in/richarddcrowley indicates he works there.

3 comments

The same link’s in the second sentence of the article. But, sure, I forgot.
It's a bit different of a situation from the usual product recommendations because the domain of the article and link in the comment is the same.
Seems relevant to me. The article is from your organization, and that information is something I wouldn't have known if not for the prior commenter's comment.
What a weird comment.
Having people disclose if they work for/have a vested interest in what they recommend sets HN apart from other communities.

It gives me a bit more confidence that I can trust what people recommend here and isn't just hidden marketing.

Kind of .. I think it's good that people are encouraged to disclose their interests on HN as a matter of course.
If they had disclosed their involvement in their profile at least I could give them the benefit of the doubt but in this case, like the other commenters, I assumed he had used the tool as a customer and had a positive experience, not that he was literally the founder of the group making the tool.

That’s not to say his opinion is not wanted, just that the potential bias should be made transparent.

It's a single comment on one hackernews thread that is already buried.

You're bikeshedding.

A DM is reasonable. Calling someone out in public like that is childish.
There aren‘t any DMs on Hacker News, and if he didn’t post that comment I would have thought it was a disinterested commenter recommending something they had used, not somebody who works on the project. The cultural norm here is to disclose when you are recommending your own product and it’s not childish to point out when people fail to do that, it’s reinforcing that cultural norm.
> There aren‘t any DMs on Hacker News

Good thing they... (checks notes) ...know exactly who made the post and can reach out to them on LinkedIn or email them.

Cultural norms are reinforced by good examples, there's nothing good about snippy public comments. Reaching out to them privately isn't hard, and, dare I say it: is more inclusive. I don't think I need to explain the origin of the word assume.

> , there's nothing good about snippy public comments.

It didn't seem snippy to me. "Why aren't you disclosing your ties" would be IMO. The message that was actually posted seemed quite diplomatic.

> Good thing they... (checks notes) ...know exactly who made the post and can reach out to them on LinkedIn or email them.

Which I wouldn’t see. I’m glad they posted the comment.