Tell HN: Please stop offering your services • Hacker News Board

Re: Tell HN: Please stop offering your services

#31

Post by rokhayakebe » Wed, Oct 27, 2010, 6:37 PM UTC

Tell swombat: What/who gives you the right to say that?

Swombat, you are one of the greatest contributors, but you are wrong here. Let them offer, it does not hurt anyone. I think the community is quick to identify the honest folks from those who aren't.

Some people love to help just as much as you love to comment. Saying stop offering services is not so different than saying stop giving feedback on ask HN.

Maybe we just structure the way people Offer HN. They could just probably share the feedbacks here so a lot more companies can benefit from it.

At any rate, keep offering if you want to offer. If you do not care for offers just skip them.

Re: Tell HN: Please stop offering your services

#32

Post by calloc » Wed, Oct 27, 2010, 6:38 PM UTC

tzury wrote: post #4

could not agree more, those are all from the last hour. perhaps we shall have a '/offers' or something else which hackers can go there and offers their goods. http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1839375 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1839394 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1839450 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1839460 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1839662 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18396…

http://news.ycombinator.com/offerless (as pg posted a couple of posts up)

Re: Tell HN: Please stop offering your services

#33

Post by p_alexander » Wed, Oct 27, 2010, 6:38 PM UTC

If it gets really bad, won't the community just respond by having a monthly "Who's Offering" thread, much like we now have the monthly "Who's Hiring" thread?

Re: Tell HN: Please stop offering your services

#34

Post by nkassis » Wed, Oct 27, 2010, 6:39 PM UTC

pg wrote: post #14

zackattack wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Maybe it's interesting to you since HN is your baby and it's fun to watch people use your creation in unexpected ways, but for us, it's lowering the value/utility.

Repl to the rescue: http://news.ycombinator.com/offerless (defop offerless req (offerlesspage (get-user req))) (newscache offerlesspage user 90 (listpage user (msec) ranked-stories* [and (>= (realscore _) front-threshold*) (cansee user _) (no (begins _!title "Offer ")) _] nil nil "offerless"))

that's pretty cool. I know it would be a little crazy to implement but having the ability to build some special pages like this would be cool on a user level. Unless it's already there and I haven't seen it (Maybe something as simple as filters?).

Re: Tell HN: Please stop offering your services

#35

Post by paulbaumgart » Wed, Oct 27, 2010, 6:39 PM UTC

swombat wrote: post #9

pg wrote: post #3

Don't worry, these things always run their course. At least this is driven by generosity. Plus you have to admit it's sort of interesting to watch new forms of internet behavior evolve.

For sure. Do they run their course because posts like this one encourage them to run their course, or would they fade away by themselves anyway? :-) My worry is, this one is a good idea in the wrong place. This is basically a strong variation on reddit's AMA, which has taken a solid hold there and isn't going anywhere. Since HN doesn't support sub-forums, there is a risk that we could be "stuck with" this for a while…

I don't think another website would work. There have been several efforts to make off-shoot niche websites based on one aspect of HN, and I think it's precisely because they focus on a single niche that they are so quickly forgotten.

The fact that HN offers so many different things is what makes it so compelling (addictive, even): new knowledge, interesting discussion, a sense of community, a place to find people for real life meetups. And now a means to find and offer free services.

It's that combination of things that compels people to come back day after day. You can't just slice off a minor aspect of HN and expect people to pay attention.

Re: Tell HN: Please stop offering your services

#36

Post by dotBen » Wed, Oct 27, 2010, 6:40 PM UTC

OP's post is the one time I wish front-page items could be down-voted

Re: Tell HN: Please stop offering your services

#37

Post by charlief » Wed, Oct 27, 2010, 6:40 PM UTC

jacquesm wrote: post #12

I actually think it is fascinating to see this, and I don't think they're spam at all and suggesting they are really not nice at all. HN is many things to many people don't let your particular view of what HN should be dictate the status quo. > But if everyone posted "Offer HN" posts, even if they all did it just once and with a genuine desire to help, rather than a secret need to build their public profile and/or ge…

I can't agree with you more. Maybe there is a compromise somewhere.

In http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1839394 I suggested that the offering person summarize advice and findings and puts it back in the thread. Effectively, the thread becomes a reverse Ask HN and can be incredibly useful. The information persists, and it is available to future HN users. You're getting tips/advice/reviews specifically applicable or tailored to someone like you, a member of Hacker News.

In the ideal case, a reverse Ask HN has participants post a link to their content, and the user (hopefully an expert user) would reply in that comment's thread with content instead of in private. If some privacy is preferred, then a summary can be posted to wrap up all the advice they gave to HN users.

Re: Tell HN: Please stop offering your services

#38

Post by jemfinch » Wed, Oct 27, 2010, 6:41 PM UTC

> Often, a good test of whether something is worth doing is "what if everyone did the same?"

Nice try, Kant!

Re: Tell HN: Please stop offering your services

#39

Post by loginx » Wed, Oct 27, 2010, 6:42 PM UTC

swombat wrote: post #20

jacquesm wrote: post #12

I actually think it is fascinating to see this, and I don't think they're spam at all and suggesting they are really not nice at all. HN is many things to many people don't let your particular view of what HN should be dictate the status quo. > But if everyone posted "Offer HN" posts, even if they all did it just once and with a genuine desire to help, rather than a secret need to build their public profile and/or ge…

Hey, you're part of the Secret Cabalistic Society of HN Worship now, you're not allowed to disagree anymore! Get in line! More seriously - call me a cynic if you will, but when I see people offering help with the Twitter API or with SEO or tax advice or even help with RoR, well, I don't know, something smells fishy to me. That help is freely available on numerous forums to anyone who's looking for it, and it is a pre…

My only concern is really that in the short/medium term, this could lead to a large influx of freeloaders from other communities, who may have no interest in "paying it forward", but mostly in dropping by for a quick freebie, while not contributing anything.

It would be pretty awesome if I was wrong though, and that a new spirit of collaboration across multiple communities was the end-result, but I remain skeptical.

Re: Tell HN: Please stop offering your services

#40

Post by jacquesm » Wed, Oct 27, 2010, 6:42 PM UTC

charlief wrote: post #37

jacquesm wrote: post #12

I actually think it is fascinating to see this, and I don't think they're spam at all and suggesting they are really not nice at all. HN is many things to many people don't let your particular view of what HN should be dictate the status quo. > But if everyone posted "Offer HN" posts, even if they all did it just once and with a genuine desire to help, rather than a secret need to build their public profile and/or ge…

I can't agree with you more. Maybe there is a compromise somewhere. In http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1839394 I suggested that the offering person summarize advice and findings and puts it back in the thread. Effectively, the thread becomes a reverse Ask HN and can be incredibly useful. The information persists, and it is available to future HN users. You're getting tips/advice/reviews specifically applicable or…

I summarized all of them in a blog post, and I'll keep it up to date. If someone wants to 'retract' their offer due to being swamped or for some other reason let me know and I'll unlink the link.

http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1839747