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We're only being dishonest to get your attention. Join us!

news.ycombinator.com

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Re: We're only being dishonest to get your attention. Join us!

#11

Post by minimaxir »

balsam wrote: post #7
joeblau wrote: post #5

Thanks for addressing this, I was wondering what was going on with that other post. The content did seem intriguing, but also a little shady at the same time.

FWIW this shows what it takes to get to the front page. There are a lot of interesting links in "new" right now but only stuff with a bit of negative tension gets boosted to the front page (fear & conspiracies work!) Disclaimer: I provided the crucial vote that boosted this here very thread.

There's a big difference between "getting to the front page" and receiving more than 1 upvote per minute.

Re: We're only being dishonest to get your attention. Join us!

#13

Post by [deleted] »

balsam wrote: post #7
joeblau wrote: post #5

Thanks for addressing this, I was wondering what was going on with that other post. The content did seem intriguing, but also a little shady at the same time.

FWIW this shows what it takes to get to the front page. There are a lot of interesting links in "new" right now but only stuff with a bit of negative tension gets boosted to the front page (fear & conspiracies work!) Disclaimer: I provided the crucial vote that boosted this here very thread.

[deleted]

Re: We're only being dishonest to get your attention. Join us!

#14

Post by balsam »

minimaxir wrote: post #11
balsam wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

FWIW this shows what it takes to get to the front page. There are a lot of interesting links in "new" right now but only stuff with a bit of negative tension gets boosted to the front page (fear & conspiracies work!) Disclaimer: I provided the crucial vote that boosted this here very thread.

There's a big difference between "getting to the front page" and receiving more than 1 upvote per minute.

not if you cast the second vote within a minute. the subsequent votes don't help as much as the second vote, which already gets it too far (where people on the first few pages in the main section can see it)

Re: We're only being dishonest to get your attention. Join us!

#15

Post by argumentum »

It wouldn't have been that bad had they made one simple change .. from (20% of College Students) to (20% of ) or (20% of a major public university).

It would have actually been more impressive if they weren't so vague .. now they are probably going to turn off a lot of good prospects.

I say this as a YC alum whose 1st job post was fairly ill-advised (though not dishonest). Believe me, it is quite tempting to play around, so I wouldn't be too hard especially on the smaller teams who haven't been recruiting/employing for too long.

They will learn, soon enough. It's also important to note that many teams consist of 17-22 year olds, and as this app is aimed at college students it seems like it could be one of those teams. So cut them some slack.

Re: We're only being dishonest to get your attention. Join us!

#16

Post by dylangs1030 »

pearjuice wrote: post #6

YC companies always have the worst link-baiting lines to get you to click on their job offers. Just put them in a standard template so we know who is looking for what before clicking on the link. I propose: {company} ({yc season}) looking for {role} Role should be the actual function title and if applicable mentioning the language-stack (i.e. RoR, node) the candidate should master.

I second this strongly. I'd pay a lot more attention with a simple format. It's more respectful to the audience and makes you seem more professional.

Common objections:

But we're young and hip, we wanna look different from the big companies! - Doesn't matter. Still bad practice.

But we don't like labels. We want generalists. - Then specify that. Asking for a "ninja" or some other nondescript title is retarded.

But we want to say what we do! - That's what the post is for.

YC companies have the exclusive ability to post job ads on the front page. I highly doubt there's any reasonable justification for posting anything aside from a standard template. It's not like you need more help.

Re: We're only being dishonest to get your attention. Join us!

#17

Post by jpadvo »

argumentum wrote: post #15

It wouldn't have been that bad had they made one simple change .. from (20% of College Students) to (20% of ) or (20% of a major public university). It would have actually been more impressive if they weren't so vague .. now they are probably going to turn off a lot of good prospects. I say this as a YC alum whose 1st job post was fairly ill-advised (though not dishonest). Believe me, it is quite tempting to play aro…

I figured they would learn by getting called out like this. And since the post was anonymous, it doesn't really hurt them anyway. Free learning experience.

Re: We're only being dishonest to get your attention. Join us!

#18

Post by minimaxir »

dylangs1030 wrote: post #16
pearjuice wrote: post #6

YC companies always have the worst link-baiting lines to get you to click on their job offers. Just put them in a standard template so we know who is looking for what before clicking on the link. I propose: {company} ({yc season}) looking for {role} Role should be the actual function title and if applicable mentioning the language-stack (i.e. RoR, node) the candidate should master.

I second this strongly. I'd pay a lot more attention with a simple format. It's more respectful to the audience and makes you seem more professional. Common objections: But we're young and hip, we wanna look different from the big companies! - Doesn't matter. Still bad practice. But we don't like labels. We want generalists. - Then specify that. Asking for a "ninja" or some other nondescript title is retarded. But we…

There's a popular growth hacking strategy which I like to call the "what the hell" strategy: The content lead-in is deliberately vague but still gives you an idea of what it's about and it makes the reader go "what the hell?" and check it out of morbid curiosity. It's the inverse of link-baiting.

Re: We're only being dishonest to get your attention. Join us!

#19

Post by nknighthb »

balsam wrote: post #7
joeblau wrote: post #5

Thanks for addressing this, I was wondering what was going on with that other post. The content did seem intriguing, but also a little shady at the same time.

FWIW this shows what it takes to get to the front page. There are a lot of interesting links in "new" right now but only stuff with a bit of negative tension gets boosted to the front page (fear & conspiracies work!) Disclaimer: I provided the crucial vote that boosted this here very thread.

YC job ads are not voted on. They appear on the front page automatically.

Re: We're only being dishonest to get your attention. Join us!

#20

Post by amirmc »

jpadvo wrote: post #17
argumentum wrote: post #15

It wouldn't have been that bad had they made one simple change .. from (20% of College Students) to (20% of ) or (20% of a major public university). It would have actually been more impressive if they weren't so vague .. now they are probably going to turn off a lot of good prospects. I say this as a YC alum whose 1st job post was fairly ill-advised (though not dishonest). Believe me, it is quite tempting to play aro…

I figured they would learn by getting called out like this. And since the post was anonymous, it doesn't really hurt them anyway. Free learning experience.

And also useful feedback for other YC companies that are queuing up job posts.

There have been previous discussions about the state of some YC job ads (though I can't find them right now), so this isn't the first time people have felt compelled to say something.

edit: Link to previous job post discussions (I know there are others but can't dig them up).

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5230892

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