> Does this guy think he's a celebrity or something?
Not to slam the guy, but if you examine his submission history, he seems to be using HN as a tool to build his "personal brand". Regardless, readers upvote it.
It people find the content valuable, does it matter if he's gaining something from the exposure? Come to think of it, aren't a lot of the people who post here doing it (at least partially) to promote themselves or something they're building? I mean, I freely admit I am, for one[1].
[1]: Fogbeam Labs, the up-and-coming Open Source collaboration/knowledge-management company. http://www.fogbeam.com Go there now and sign up for our newsletter. It's not necessary for you to spend the rest of your day thinking about how cool Fogbeam Labs are, and how much you want to email all your friends and tell them about us too. But if you can remember a time when you were really excited about a company like Fogbeam Labs, then think back to those feelings and how that made you feel, and do the right thing.
> It people find the content valuable, does it matter if he's gaining something from the exposure?
No. Nothing wrong with tatsuke95 giving the reasons why he thinks the emperor has no clothes either, though.
Maybe if the consensus at HN is that some organizations are over-using link bait for self-promotion, a little more awareness of that isn't a bad thing.
Personally, I found the link to have a couple of interesting tidbits, but I welcome contrary thoughts on the value of the article as long as they're stated reasonably politely and appear to have some logic behind them.
>"Come to think of it, aren't a lot of the people who post here doing it (at least partially) to promote themselves or something they're building? I mean, I freely admit I am, for one"
And if it's excessive, you're likely to get called out on it.
Look, I have no agenda here. I got up this morning and started reading HN, like I do every other day. I got to this article, read it, and thought, "My god, this guy is full of himself." So I came to discuss my opinion on the article, which is precisely what this forum is for. He didn't answer the question that was asked of him. He talked about wanting to give us specifics and details, and didn't give any. Glossed right over anything pertaining to the business. Then submitted the article himself. So it's not like someone stumbled on it and thought, "Great stuff!"
As far as putting CEO in quotes, that's a bit of a joke. I'm aware he's the CEO; it's there on that page about 5 times. In fact, he refers to himself as CEO more times in that article than I've heard my CEO refer to his title....ever. Again, a little obnoxious.
I admit, I don't know the guy from a hole in the ground. All I can do is judge him on how and what he writes. That's what I'm doing, and what others are doing to me. I'm glad you found the article insightful. I found it to be crap. And I think that the story he's selling is unsustainable. Time will tell. But I can assure you I'll be following this company closely from now on.
Anyway, I've stirred it up a bit more than I intended, so I'm going slink into the shadows...
"Come to think of it, aren't a lot of the people who post here doing it (at least partially) to promote themselves or something they're building?"
I don't have an issue with self promotion on the part of anyone including what you have done with the [1]. (As an aside I've never charged anyone for anything mentioned in my hn profile although somehow I suspect that some people have felt that I am self promoting. (Which is not to say I won't charge I just haven't so far...)
There appears though to be an imaginary line that some HN posters cross that seems to upset people here depending on the poster. Based on a recent ryancarson post he may have crossed it. (Someone wrote sarcastically that he writes the BEST blog posts, Ryan thanked that person, then someone else basically told ryan he was a schmuck for not seeing the sarcasm (the parent was quickly deleted interestingly).
Regardless of whether someone finds Ryan annoying, pompous or not (personally I don't like the picture of him with the hat, sorry Ryan) I definitely know who Ryan is now and I think he's gained more than he will ever lose by tooting his own horn. And that can only help him. To this day people still make fun of Donald Trump. So if a hacker would rather toil in obscurity and not brag that is his choice. But there is a benefit to bragging and being pompous in achieving your goals and that should be kept in mind. Being humble only gets you so far.
As an aside, you need to get some serious lorum ipsum on your site if you are going to promote it as you've done.
As an aside, you need to get some serious lorum ipsum on your site if you are going to promote it as you've done.
Good point. We've been so "heads down" writing code, that the website hasn't been much of a priority to date. Truth be told, I'd forgotten that "coming soon" was there. Thanks for pointing it out. :-)
Not to slam the guy, but if you examine his submission history, he seems to be using HN as a tool to build his "personal brand". Regardless, readers upvote it.