[mlyang]

It's obviously wrong what Rap Genius did, no doubt about it. They should not have used these techniques. But, it's not a bizarre line of thinking to think of whether the person who posted it finds it to be worth it after the fact given the severity of the repercussion (which could effectively ruin the whole business).

[adharmad]

RG's techniques were not honest and were costing other sites that were using legitimate techniques and playing by the rules their ranking in Google's search results (and maybe even revenue).

[hbags]

mlyang: It is absolutely a bizarre first reaction to imply that the reporter should feel culpable for the harm that RapGenius caused themselves.

If RapGenius is ruined that easily, RG didn't have a real business to begin with. Their scheme was something that would've certainly triggered Google's ban-hammer sooner or later; the only question was timing. My bet is that RG will reexamine and improve their distribution playbook. I say this because I don't think a16z would invest in a company whose distribution plans consisted solely of SEO.

But you could be correct. Maybe RG is such a fragile company that this nearly inevitable setback is enough to kill them.

p.s. just an FYI: it's generally considered bad form to delete a post that has already garnered responses, especially if those responses are critical.

[mlyang]

I never implied that the reporter was culpable. He isn't, RapGenius 100% is. But if I were in the original poster's shoes-- for me at least-- I would've initially found breaking the story to be fun and interesting, but seeing how Rap Genius as a business is basically screwed for the foreseeable future, I would've definitely thought twice. I agree that Rap Genius is 100% wrong in its shady tactics, but as a lot of the other commenters in this above thread (who have not been down-voted to oblivion) have stated, this is a pretty harsh punishment on Google's part. Knowing the harshness of the punishment after the fact, I was just pondering as to how the original poster felt, that's all.

[hbags]

Perhaps you didn't intend to imply it, but unfortunately that message was communicated to several of us. Thank you for clarifying that you don't hold that view. This apparent miscommunication emphasizes the importance of not deleting (and not substantially editing) posts once they've garnered attention.

I, for one, hope the author feels no remorse for their article. It was a fun and interesting article, and they reported the story well.

I continue to hold the belief that if this incident creates a material problem for RG, then RG was already a ticking time bomb. That said, I have plenty of faith that RG will weather the storm, and that perhaps this will be a wake-up call that inspires them to do something more creative and valuable than a spammy link-swap.