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"Rate My Startup" Post Policy

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Re: "Rate My Startup" Post Policy

#82
post #2

I don't think it is unreasonable to ask people to invest time in the community before they can request the community to invest time evaluating their product.

I'm about 2 months away from having something to rate, so I started commenting/writing/posting just so that when the time came I wouldn't be "that guy"...

As long as you say interesting stuff...

OTOH, if you say stuff that's considered interesting here, you are probably not trying to sucker us into reviewing your app.

Re: "Rate My Startup" Post Policy

#83

Earlier quoted context omitted.

An option might be to send RMS posts from users with low karma into a slashdot-esque crowdsourced moderation. Randomly show it to 10 users with a high enough karma on any of the list pages (frontpage, newest, classic, etc.). It's then only made public if a high percentage of such "moderators" approve of it (not necessarily counting "approval" as an upvote, just meaning "this is legit"). The percentage could be pretty…

Rating without looking at the underlying content is horrible. Perhaps it could be mitigated by tracking if the link was followed, weighting authenticated upvotes more heavily than unauthenticated ones (where "authenticated" means a click-through to the content was observed). You could track a link click either by setting a cookie client-side with javascript, or by linking to a trampoline page on HN that tracks the cl…

I have, on occasion, voted up a link on HN without clicking through iff I have already read the article in question on, say, reddit. (I mouseover to make sure it's the same URL, though, and not just title and domain.)

Re: "Rate My Startup" Post Policy

#84
post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I agree, but it's important that what qualifies as investment matters. Perhaps a function of comments, votes, submissions and time the account has been around. As an aside, how would we distinguish between RMS posts and regular posts? Would the spammers simply revert to normal posts? I think if this is the case then perhaps we should reconsider the goal. If the goal is to stop spam masquerading as RMS, then it seems…

I'm reminded of the first time I saw PG speak, it was on bayespam at MIT -- he noted that if SPAM can come up with interesting and engaging email, he'll happily read it. I imagine that as soon as someone is posting interesting content, RMS or not, PG and others won't think of them as 'spammers' anymore, rather contributors.

If SPAM is interesting and engaging, is is SPAM?

Re: "Rate My Startup" Post Policy

#85

So a hacker who has been reading HN everyday while coding his product, but does not post often; is not allowed to post RMS anymore?

You could ask a community member with an established account to consider posting your startup as suggested earlier.

So here's my counterpoint to that: Then that established community member gets even more karma points for posting that. You still have that same problem where I, the perpetual lurker who occasional contributes a comment or a post every now and then, never gets to build their karma points.

It's still like WoW. You put in the time and you get the exp/karma/level what have you.

Re: "Rate My Startup" Post Policy

#86
post #2

I don't think it is unreasonable to ask people to invest time in the community before they can request the community to invest time evaluating their product.

I'm about 2 months away from having something to rate, so I started commenting/writing/posting just so that when the time came I wouldn't be "that guy"...

You and I think eerily alike.

Re: "Rate My Startup" Post Policy

#88

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have no first hand knowledge, but I would be surprised if a 2.5 year old account with 250 of karma (like you do) is not considered established enough for this purpose.

What about a 2.5 year old account with no karma? You'd be surprised at how many lurkers there are. I know quite a few (and was one myself up until a short while ago). EDIT: added emphasis

Agreed. I lurked here for about one year before I made an account. Even after I made an account, I still rarely comment.

Re: "Rate My Startup" Post Policy

#89

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have no first hand knowledge, but I would be surprised if a 2.5 year old account with 250 of karma (like you do) is not considered established enough for this purpose.

I wouldn't, actually. I've got comparable karma (221) after about two years, and I can't even consistently downvote items. I noticed down arrows a while ago for comments, but recently I've noticed that they only appear on certain comments, and others are upvote only. My assumption has been that there is some sort of inflation at play. Not that I'm complaining of course. I think I've only used my downvote powers once…

You cannot downvote comments older than 24 hours. Submissions can't be downvoted at all.

Re: "Rate My Startup" Post Policy

#90
I'm working on an app (www.sparkmuse.com) to handle some of these "Rate My Startup" type posts. I'm hoping it will go to beta with the November Launch Group, but it will probably be a bit later because of the irl job. Anywho, I don't want to steal pg's thunder, so if you guys have any ideas for more specific "Rate My Startup" features apart from the HN format, please let me know.
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