Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

A Week After Google Changes Algo, Mahalo Fires 10% of Staff

centernetworks.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

91–100 of 124 posts

Re: A Week After Google Changes Algo, Mahalo Fires 10% of Staff

#91

Post by ehsanul »

endtime wrote: post #66
ihodes wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Mahalo is equated with spam in the eyes of many HNers (including me), and JC is seen as the promoter of said spam. EDIT: Why the hell is this getting so many upvotes? Because it's easier to read? Upvote, instead, some of the comments with actual fucking content. EDIT2: Also, while I think (much of) Mahalo is spam, I respect Jason and his business, and wish him the best of luck.

>Why the hell is this getting so many upvotes? Concision is valuable.

You made me look this up. *Is it "concision" or "conciseness" - http://raymondpward.typepad.com/rainman2/2005/11/is_it_conci...

Re: A Week After Google Changes Algo, Mahalo Fires 10% of Staff

#92

Post by JonnieCache »

rimantas wrote: post #72
jasonmcalacanis wrote: post #41

1. We're working with the folks impacted to place them at whatever company they would like to join. I'm personally reaching out to folks who might want these fine people. They will all wind up on their feet and be great additions to the vibrant startup scene in Los Angeles. 2. Mahalo is doing amazing videos with experts, but our (text) articles were created by passionate writers who are not necessarily experts. Googl…

> Video is the future, and we're going to be the largest > creator of educational videos this year. Oh no. I cannot wait for the video be the past. It may be the best way to teach some things (mainly involving physical activities or physical manipulation of some sort), but for programming topics it most often just waste of time and bandwidth. Why would I want to spend a minute watching someone to type a line of code…

>Why would I want to spend a minute watching someone to type a line of code with all mistypes and corrections, when I can glance it in a second?

A lot of people do want this. A good screencast shows not only the code, but the thought process that goes into writing the code.

People have different cognitive styles and learn in very different ways. I thought this was common knowledge by now.

Re: A Week After Google Changes Algo, Mahalo Fires 10% of Staff

#93

Post by ericflo »

staunch wrote: post #37
cabinguy wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't know Jason Calacanis, but I get a couple of things out of this. (and yea, I know my two main points are contradictive) 1. Mahalo is blowing in the wind. I have no idea what Mahalo is or what Calacanis wants it to be. SEOing the hell out of near-worthless content is not a long-term strategy. If you want to win - solve a problem! 2. Jason Calacanis is an excellent executive. This Google algo change took place o…

NEGATIVE: 1) Jason and Mahalo are over. Their new strategy is very expensive and a multi-year road before it's a real business. It's a total rewrite, not a pivot by any means, if they do it well. No way Calacanis lasts a few more years at Mahalo (even if the board doesn't push him out). 2) Calacanis isn't really in charge at Mahalo AFAIK. The employees all report to Jason Rapp. Rapp and the board probably made the de…

This entire comment is predicated on the assumption that getting rich is the underlying reason entrepreneurs build businesses. I disagree with this assumption.

Re: A Week After Google Changes Algo, Mahalo Fires 10% of Staff

#94

Post by rimantas »

JonnieCache wrote: post #92
rimantas wrote: post #72

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Video is the future, and we're going to be the largest > creator of educational videos this year. Oh no. I cannot wait for the video be the past. It may be the best way to teach some things (mainly involving physical activities or physical manipulation of some sort), but for programming topics it most often just waste of time and bandwidth. Why would I want to spend a minute watching someone to type a line of code…

>Why would I want to spend a minute watching someone to type a line of code with all mistypes and corrections, when I can glance it in a second? A lot of people do want this. A good screencast shows not only the code, but the thought process that goes into writing the code. People have different cognitive styles and learn in very different ways. I thought this was common knowledge by now.

A good writeup can do this too. I think some like video because of the pacing — you just have time for the information so sink in.

Re: A Week After Google Changes Algo, Mahalo Fires 10% of Staff

#95

Post by clojurerocks »

jasonmcalacanis wrote: post #60
staunch wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You like brutal honesty and you put yourself out there, so I think it's fair to ask you. Why don't you leave your role at Mahalo and do what you're the absolute best at? (TWiST, LAUNCH Conf, TC competitor)? Plenty of people can do a video eHow, but almost no one else could rival TC. It seems like a pride/ego/money thing from the outside. Is it something else?

Well, I really believe in the mission to build a site that helps people learn anything... and I believed in human-powered search before that (and still do to be honest). I've got the education bug, and I want to take the promise we all see in things like Lynda.com and Kahn Academy and scale it into a brand as big as Google or Wikipedia. LAUNCH, Angel investing and This Week in Startups are all fun, but they are not a…

Jason, you might consider doing a non profit with a more narrow focused education project rather then a for profit catch all product. Im personally involved with 2 projects that are being directed at kids and teens and are using game mechanics to try to get them excited about learning.

There is a DESPARATE need within this market for passionate knowledgeable and skilled people who are willing to invest their time energy and certainly money to help build these projects and get the word out. Personally knowing that the work that im doing will help kids and teens and maybe even young adults get excited about learning is more exciting then the idea of having everybody use my product and then being able to sell it and make alot of money. Ok almost as exciting. :-).

So please consider it. Thank you.

Re: A Week After Google Changes Algo, Mahalo Fires 10% of Staff

#96

Post by DrJokepu »

JonnieCache wrote: post #92
rimantas wrote: post #72

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Video is the future, and we're going to be the largest > creator of educational videos this year. Oh no. I cannot wait for the video be the past. It may be the best way to teach some things (mainly involving physical activities or physical manipulation of some sort), but for programming topics it most often just waste of time and bandwidth. Why would I want to spend a minute watching someone to type a line of code…

>Why would I want to spend a minute watching someone to type a line of code with all mistypes and corrections, when I can glance it in a second? A lot of people do want this. A good screencast shows not only the code, but the thought process that goes into writing the code. People have different cognitive styles and learn in very different ways. I thought this was common knowledge by now.

Yes I don't doubt that, but for example, I am not one of those people and I don't think I'm alone. Just give me written instructions, please.

I guess that's probably the same reason why I was always incredibly bored during lectures at university and preferred learning from books instead.

Re: A Week After Google Changes Algo, Mahalo Fires 10% of Staff

#97

Post by stevefarnworth »

rimantas wrote: post #72
jasonmcalacanis wrote: post #41

1. We're working with the folks impacted to place them at whatever company they would like to join. I'm personally reaching out to folks who might want these fine people. They will all wind up on their feet and be great additions to the vibrant startup scene in Los Angeles. 2. Mahalo is doing amazing videos with experts, but our (text) articles were created by passionate writers who are not necessarily experts. Googl…

> Video is the future, and we're going to be the largest > creator of educational videos this year. Oh no. I cannot wait for the video be the past. It may be the best way to teach some things (mainly involving physical activities or physical manipulation of some sort), but for programming topics it most often just waste of time and bandwidth. Why would I want to spend a minute watching someone to type a line of code…

Everyone learns in different ways, there are lots of people who are "viewers", who learn by watching others do something and there are also those who learn by reading about a topic. Both are perfectly acceptable forms of learning, and the drop in bandwidth and hosting costs is enabling those who teach/learn in that way to come to the fore.

I for one wouldn't know anything about Rails without Ryan Bates' Railscasts series or Patrick Lenz's Simply Rails book. Quality videos watching Ryan work through the code, and show notes with the code written is great for some things, and a book is great for others.

As for Jason, sorry to hear about being forced into such a hard decision - I like the direction Mahalo is taking and wish you all the success.

Re: A Week After Google Changes Algo, Mahalo Fires 10% of Staff

#98

Post by mikecarlucci »

robryan wrote: post #24

I personally have never found any useful content at Mahalo, sure the site looks a bit better now but the previous version was trash. Imagine how many investing in high quality content lost traffic to the older spam filled, next to no content Mahalo.

For all the press Mahalo gets I've never seen a Mahalo page show up in the first page or two of Google results. Maybe I'm not looking for the right stuff, but ehow, wikihow etc. all would show up before adding them to Personal Blocklist.

Re: A Week After Google Changes Algo, Mahalo Fires 10% of Staff

#100

Post by throwit3211 »

marcamillion wrote: post #82
robryan wrote: post #80

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What do you suggest then? They carry the employees even though it is no longer economically viable?

Not in the least. I think Jason did the fiscally prudent thing. He has a fiduciary responsibility to his shareholders to respond in the way he did. Very tough call, but no doubt the necessary call to make, if he wants to turn Mahalo into a going concern. I suggest that he doesn't go around bragging about how he only wants 'winners' and he expects everybody to give 80 hour weeks and all that non-sense. Giving someone…

And a lot of them are probably Gen Y people who, had this been a different company, upon applying to Mahalo would be discriminated against. Left their job in a year? Oh they were laid off? Well, in Calacanis' book they were the laziest, most selfish 10% of employees - they deserved it!

Hopefully too many other businesses don't buy into that nonsense.

Post reply on HN