[egiva]

No I didn't. I understand the post. I support anyone, anywhere who wants to learn programming and show an interest, especially young women who are under-represented in the industry. I just think that they're promoting Madison Ruby because the piece is highly structured to display a very specific keyword density, and that's typical for promotional work. So my vote is that they're not being honest about the origins of this article. Just an opinion though.

[drharris]

It's a story about Madison Ruby, which is a tech conference that requires travelling to Madison and involves talks about Ruby. I think this is the appropriate keyword density. Sometimes good content is just that, no SEO required. SEO is for people who can't write.

[egiva]

Thanks for the comment drharris. With all due respect, I think this is a paid promotional article, not something that should be promoted on the front page of HN. Consider this: A) they published the article, then changed it to optize it for SEO. The original title being "How to Recruit Women into Tech: A Madison Ruby case study". B) Event insiders and HN users with very low ratings plugging Madison Ruby in the comments section, and specifically plugging organizers "Jim and Jen" stating that other events people should consider hiring them. C) The author's story is highly unusual - blogger with no previous interest in programming invited (for free) to a tech conference, and afterwards writes very long, SEO-optimized blog post about the event? Hey - I'm sure the event was great, and I'm a 110% supporter of any ways to get young people, and more women into the tech industry. But I think that paid promotional work has no place on HN, because it's disingenuous to present it as a true testimonial.

[Wendy_RM]

Hey cool! I didn't know I was so good at promotional work & SEO! I mean I knew I was writing good stuff (regardless of my lack of income) but now I know just how marketable my writing is! Thanks for giving me an anecdote to share when I apply for content strategy and SEO positions in the future! Your comments are just about resume worthy for me!

I am happy to promote via honest positive review an event that was literally life changing for both me and my partner. I does seem like I got a lot of freebees. I did. In that I was lucky. But I was also lucky to have the experience of MR as a place to confront some of my issues with tech. If you had actually focused at all on the content of my post you'd know that I identified elements of the conference that were problematic and difficult for me to access. I did this because I want to event to be better about these things in the future.

I understand where your skepticism comes from. I am skeptic too (you would also know this if you read more of my posts). But please don't assume that my articulated account of a positive experience is bought. It wasn't (at least not with anything more than valuable experiences and cheese).

My post was not an infomercial. I never want to use my personal blog for paid promotional work. I never titled the post anything other that "My Madison Ruby Story" (the other title was lifted from a 3rd party tweet) and NO edits have been made to the actual post since I published it yesterday at noon. The SEO-optimization was a coincidence. One I may now point to as an example of my acumen for content strategy. So thanks.

[blaines]

Hope you enjoyed the cheese!

[jremsikjr]

You're wrong. This is something that my wife and I have spent the last 2.5 years trying to build. An inclusive event where everyone feels welcome to participate.

The post was made here specifically because HN has a reputation for being exclusive and to show, as we have in our conference(s), that with a little work you can build a successful inclusive community.

I respect your opinion and your right to stick up for HN to prevent it from being gamed. There was no compensation made of any type to encourage Wendy to write this piece.

[egiva]

Well, then please accept my apologies and thank you for taking the time to explain. As I said originally, I think that it's wonderful that you're encouraging young people, and especially women who are under-represented, to get involved in the tech industry. That is truely a goal worthy of your 2.5 years of hard work.

[jremsikjr]

Thanks egiva!

[drharris]

Where are you finding the original title? The original title of this HN submission was that, but as far as I can tell, the original blog title was "My Madison Ruby Story", as it stands now. What are you seeing that makes it look like she later optimized for SEO? There's literally no evidence for what you are saying unless I'm missing something.

As far as it all being fake, that's absurd; she's created a new blog specifically about all the cheese they bought with her gift certificate, the first entry being about Madison Ruby. There are much better stories one could tell if they were indeed lying (maybe one about not skipping out on half the conference).

[twopoint718]

Nope, this article is the real deal. I was at this conference and the take on the community rings true to me. It was a no-holds-barred hug fest (and a fine conference, of course). Lest you accuse me of sockpuppet-ism, I've been on HN for 5 years.