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What being on the front page of Hacker News does for our bottom line

37signals.com

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Re: What being on the front page of Hacker News does for our bottom line

#31

Post by briandear »

mbesto wrote: post #24
bullseye wrote: post #4

Upvote us, downvote us, ignore us – I don’t care I think this is a good attitude to have, but I have to point out that obviously it matters a little. Otherwise, this post wouldn't exist.

Actually I believe what he is saying is that he doesn't necessarily care that opinions are varied, but rather that the essence of the community and HN's meritocracy is preserved. SvN/37signals shouldn't ever ask anyone to up/downvote anything, that's for you decide. ps- you can't downvote articles anyway

Ps, you can downvote if you have enough karma.

Re: What being on the front page of Hacker News does for our bottom line

#32

Post by shingen »

Their economic measurement is pure B.S.

$300 / month? Ok, so -

1) how many people buy, due to HN, that they can't directly attribute to a HN follow-through click?

2) what has the exposure been worth, for literally everything they do (from pushing books to all their services)? Particularly given the rather high value group that they reach through HN.

Try putting a price on the massive branding and credibility they've acquired through reaching the HN audience, and then the follow-on value. I'd argue that their exposure on HN is worth radically more than advertising; for the same reason your friend sharing a link directly with you is worth a zillion times more than a block ad on facebook.

Spanning several years, I'd peg the value into the millions of dollars given the size of their business and how hard it actually is to get traction and exposure in their market.

Re: What being on the front page of Hacker News does for our bottom line

#33

Post by victork2 »

robgough wrote: post #11
bullseye wrote: post #4

Upvote us, downvote us, ignore us – I don’t care I think this is a good attitude to have, but I have to point out that obviously it matters a little. Otherwise, this post wouldn't exist.

Personally I like their posts, and it certainly doesn't bother me when they reach the front page of HN. The only thing I'm tired of is all the predictable hate that goes their way. In fact, I find it a little petty and embarrassing for HN.

That's quite a bold statement. "hate", really?

I personally don't like their posts on HN, I don't even bother reading them anymore. The first few I read where totally devoid of any kind of useful information for me and for most people that are a little bit technical. For the non-technical posts they are merely interesting like "Look at our desks", I found them to be the equivalent of feminine magazine articles for geeks.

However this is only my opinion, and this is not a popular opinion. If you criticize them, invariably you are going to get downvoted. And if there's hate here, how come there's systematically sitting on the top 5 position every time one of their article shows up?

I have found that the criticisms found here are very polite and constructive. This show nothing but good things about HN if people can civilly disagree on a subject.

Re: What being on the front page of Hacker News does for our bottom line

#34

Post by robinjfisher »

dclaysmith wrote: post #17

I think the tone of the post was a bit combative (which is unnecessary), however, the posts clearly fit the guidelines of HN and were on a whole relatively interesting. There's nothing wrong with their posting habits. They quoted the number of posts they made on their blog but they didn't address whether: 1) they submitted more of their own blog posts to HN or 2) changed the content of their blog posts to appeal to H…

I think your first paragraph nails it: the posts fit the guidelines and were on the whole relatively interesting and a sufficient amount of people thought so for the posts to reach the front page.

Skimming their archives, they were't posting frequently towards the back end of 2011 but if they were pushing to finish Basecamp it's understandable.

In relation to the content of the articles, I think they were more attractive to the HN community - behind the scenes look at development; interesting technical articles on development.

Re: What being on the front page of Hacker News does for our bottom line

#35

Post by tptacek »

duck wrote: post #30
tptacek wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It does not appear as if they've submitted any of their own posts in the last couple months.

The bigger question is why would it matter if they did? It isn't like someone else won't going to post them.

I agree, they will inevitably get posted. And people should be able to post whatever they like to their own sites, without being accused of manipulating other sites.

Re: What being on the front page of Hacker News does for our bottom line

#36

Post by robgough »

victork2 wrote: post #33
robgough wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Personally I like their posts, and it certainly doesn't bother me when they reach the front page of HN. The only thing I'm tired of is all the predictable hate that goes their way. In fact, I find it a little petty and embarrassing for HN.

That's quite a bold statement. "hate", really? I personally don't like their posts on HN, I don't even bother reading them anymore. The first few I read where totally devoid of any kind of useful information for me and for most people that are a little bit technical. For the non-technical posts they are merely interesting like "Look at our desks", I found them to be the equivalent of feminine magazine articles for ge…

There's disagree-ing, and then there's talking in circles. As you point out - if they're being voted up, then surely they have a place. I'm just tired of seeing the "is this relevant" discussion on every single one. I find it no different than having someone go "by a Windows PC" on every Apple post, and vice versa.

I agree hate is a strong word, and I used it only a short-hand description of what I meant. I'm not overly sure which other words would be more accurate.

Re: What being on the front page of Hacker News does for our bottom line

#37

Post by blasterford »

rglover wrote: post #10

They should have just smiled at the naysayers and went on with their day. To post an entire article on the negativity of one community seems unfocused. My only question is: why? Disclosure: I'm a big fan of 37signals. This is kind of a surprise.

They thrive on being talked about. This is just extra fuel to the fire.

Re: What being on the front page of Hacker News does for our bottom line

#38

Post by cs702 »

shingen wrote: post #32

Their economic measurement is pure B.S. $300 / month? Ok, so - 1) how many people buy, due to HN, that they can't directly attribute to a HN follow-through click? 2) what has the exposure been worth, for literally everything they do (from pushing books to all their services)? Particularly given the rather high value group that they reach through HN. Try putting a price on the massive branding and credibility they've…

I'm trying to quantify some of these secondary effects with a poll here: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3680400

Re: What being on the front page of Hacker News does for our bottom line

#39

Post by blasterford »

robgough wrote: post #11
bullseye wrote: post #4

Upvote us, downvote us, ignore us – I don’t care I think this is a good attitude to have, but I have to point out that obviously it matters a little. Otherwise, this post wouldn't exist.

Personally I like their posts, and it certainly doesn't bother me when they reach the front page of HN. The only thing I'm tired of is all the predictable hate that goes their way. In fact, I find it a little petty and embarrassing for HN.

I think the dislike is warranted personally.

The amount of exposure they get is extremely out of proportion to what they are and do. They do have it down to a fine art. Even this blog post is designed to get people talking about them - which it's succeeded in doing.

They created ruby on rails, which a few people use, and they make a few webapps. They're not a startup. They give (IMHO) fairly poor startup advice, most of which would only work if you're them.

The 37 signals fanboyism all just gets a little bit too much sometimes. Best to ignore and move on though...

Re: What being on the front page of Hacker News does for our bottom line

#40

Post by bprieto »

victork2 wrote: post #33
robgough wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Personally I like their posts, and it certainly doesn't bother me when they reach the front page of HN. The only thing I'm tired of is all the predictable hate that goes their way. In fact, I find it a little petty and embarrassing for HN.

That's quite a bold statement. "hate", really? I personally don't like their posts on HN, I don't even bother reading them anymore. The first few I read where totally devoid of any kind of useful information for me and for most people that are a little bit technical. For the non-technical posts they are merely interesting like "Look at our desks", I found them to be the equivalent of feminine magazine articles for ge…

I think the "Look at our desks" post is more than interesting. It is very useful to visualize how a XXI century company looks like. In fact, I am using it next week in a seminar about business models and will compare it to the office in Billy Wilder's "The Apartment".

So maybe not technical, but definitely not "merely interesting"

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