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PayPal has permanently banned The Hacker News and hold funds for 180 days

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Re: PayPal has permanently banned The Hacker News and hold funds for 180 days

#22
post #5
post #3

Please note that "The Hacker News" is a separate site unrelated to "Hacker News".

This name confusion seems intentional and makes me default to unsympathetic, even though I suspect PayPal’s issue is not related to a name confusion root cause.

Well, THN is actually about hacking. So if the name is confusing on anyones part, I would more likely be HN.

Re: PayPal has permanently banned The Hacker News and hold funds for 180 days

#24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> This name confusion seems intentional Do you have proof, or do you just happen to feel this way without actually knowing any background story? If you make such an accusation you should state your reasons, preferably observable facts. Both "hacker" and "news" are generic terms after all. In addition, even if they did mimic the name, I would not see a problem. It's very descriptive, unlike a completely made-up word t…

This site, with the name "Hacker News", was already popular and predates the other site by several years. If I launched a new site called "TheFacebook.com" tomorrow, what proof would you need that I was, at a minimum, knowingly causing confusion?

I think that's not a great comparison. Hacker News is still essentially a niche site known to people who care about a specific set of fields relevant to startups. If you asked a random person on the street they probably wouldn't know about Y Combinator, much less Hacker News.

I'm not sure how to measure the actual level of recognition of a brand name, but I feel that Hacker News falls into the second or third tier of whatever that ranking is, whereas names like Facebook or Google form the top tier. That, combined with the relatively generic name, make me inclined to believe without further evidence that it's a coincidence - especially given the fact that the site is actually about news related to hacking, or hacker news.

A closer comparison I can think of is if I saw a watch company called "The International Watch Company". The real IWC is a luxury watch company, but the brand and its full name aren't known to many people. In that case too, my opinion is that the name is generic enough for it to feel like an honest coincidence.

Re: PayPal has permanently banned The Hacker News and hold funds for 180 days

#25
post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This name confusion seems intentional and makes me default to unsympathetic, even though I suspect PayPal’s issue is not related to a name confusion root cause.

Well, THN is actually about hacking. So if the name is confusing on anyones part, I would more likely be HN.

Hacker News is about hacking too, in the original sense of the word. It's a gathering place for people to indulge in curiosity with fellow curious people.

Re: PayPal has permanently banned The Hacker News and hold funds for 180 days

#26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This site, with the name "Hacker News", was already popular and predates the other site by several years. If I launched a new site called "TheFacebook.com" tomorrow, what proof would you need that I was, at a minimum, knowingly causing confusion?

The term "Facebook" is not nearly as generic as "hackernews".

Really? It's literally a generic term https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Face_book

Re: PayPal has permanently banned The Hacker News and hold funds for 180 days

#27
post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This name confusion seems intentional and makes me default to unsympathetic, even though I suspect PayPal’s issue is not related to a name confusion root cause.

Well, THN is actually about hacking. So if the name is confusing on anyones part, I would more likely be HN.

Define hacking

Re: PayPal has permanently banned The Hacker News and hold funds for 180 days

#28
This website was basically an extreme plagiarism website - all the way back in 2014 we had articles like this:

"The Hacker News - Profiting Off Extensive Plagiarism from Legitimate News Sources"

Interesting they feel so unfairly treated by paypal, but don't treat others properly themselves.

Re: PayPal has permanently banned The Hacker News and hold funds for 180 days

#30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This site, with the name "Hacker News", was already popular and predates the other site by several years. If I launched a new site called "TheFacebook.com" tomorrow, what proof would you need that I was, at a minimum, knowingly causing confusion?

The term "Facebook" is not nearly as generic as "hackernews".

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