"Rate My Startup" Post Policy • Hacker News Board

Re: "Rate My Startup" Post Policy

#121

Post by momotomo » Wed, Nov 03, 2010, 2:41 AM UTC

nickfromseattle wrote: post #102

markkat wrote: 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.

As a non-technical, first time entrepreneur I am finding it difficult to add value to HN. I have been lurking for ~6 months, a member for 1 month and I made my first post yesterday. With that said, I have learned a ton here and HN is easily the best resource I have ever found on any subject. edit: Potential solution: require participation in other user's RMS before you can post your own RMS. Even though I am non tech…

You could definitely add value, even from the perspective that in a generally technical community, you have a non-technical perspective.

If you are generally clever and motivated, there's few situations where you won't have input. Even asking well structure questions to learn on a topic is a good contribution, and can help people out.

Re: "Rate My Startup" Post Policy

#122

Post by natep » Wed, Nov 03, 2010, 2:42 AM UTC

dkokelley wrote: post #109

nickfromseattle wrote: post #102

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As a non-technical, first time entrepreneur I am finding it difficult to add value to HN. I have been lurking for ~6 months, a member for 1 month and I made my first post yesterday. With that said, I have learned a ton here and HN is easily the best resource I have ever found on any subject. edit: Potential solution: require participation in other user's RMS before you can post your own RMS. Even though I am non tech…

Surely you have a background in something unique or interesting, that others here don't have. At the very least, you have your perspective. I don't think it's difficult to provide insightful, valuable content to HN, in both submissions and comments. I've noticed that the topics here tend to rotate over time (meaning one week is all hard core programming, and the next week is boot strapping). Also, check out the new s…

(not grandparent, but similar situation) I've been here for a while, and I think it is difficult to participate at a level that gets lots of karma. I limit by intake of HN with the "Hacker News 100" feed, so that you all can filter my content for me (I'm going to miss good articles anyways, so I might as well not miss the popular ones). This also means that most things have already been said, or the conversation is dead, and even if I asked a great question, I wouldn't get a response.

This hasn't really bothered me, until the average karma/post started getting shown, which showed me that I get upvotes on less than half the things I say. Now that pg is also pointing out the correlation between new accounts and undesirables, I'm worried about...something (not sure what).

Re: "Rate My Startup" Post Policy

#123

Post by dpcan » Wed, Nov 03, 2010, 2:43 AM UTC

Maybe new accounts can submit RMS posts if established users "second" and "third" the submission, validating it.

I do think new users with real startups can really benefit from the community, and there should still be a way to submit them before their startup isn't a startup anymore while they're taking their time generating karma.

Re: "Rate My Startup" Post Policy

#124

Post by natep » Wed, Nov 03, 2010, 2:44 AM UTC

nickfromseattle wrote: post #102

markkat wrote: 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.

As a non-technical, first time entrepreneur I am finding it difficult to add value to HN. I have been lurking for ~6 months, a member for 1 month and I made my first post yesterday. With that said, I have learned a ton here and HN is easily the best resource I have ever found on any subject. edit: Potential solution: require participation in other user's RMS before you can post your own RMS. Even though I am non tech…

Your potential solution might work, but I think it allows for the kind of spammy comments the Android App store gets a lot

> Awesome App! 5 stars! Get paid apps 100% free from xyz.com!

Re: "Rate My Startup" Post Policy

#125

Post by arihant » Wed, Nov 03, 2010, 3:13 AM UTC

Why not create a peer review, recommendation type system? To post an RMS post, you need an "OK" vote worth 1000 karma points. If you have more than 1000, you can post. If not, you need to to show your post to other people you know or met in HN and if they "OK" vote it, their karma gets added to your post's karma tally.

People can "OK" vote your RMS post by visiting your profile.

Re: "Rate My Startup" Post Policy

#126

Post by [deleted] » Wed, Nov 03, 2010, 3:20 AM UTC

LiveTheDream wrote: post #77

djtumolo wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Agree. Also add a moderation queue. It doesn't go live as an RMS unless you pass either captcha + moderation or karma check. A great way to gain karma would be to review the moderation queue.

How do you stop spammers from building up their karma by reviewing that moderation queue by upvoting their own spammy submissions?

[deleted]

Re: "Rate My Startup" Post Policy

#127

Post by mickdarling » Wed, Nov 03, 2010, 3:20 AM UTC

LiveTheDream wrote: post #77

djtumolo wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Agree. Also add a moderation queue. It doesn't go live as an RMS unless you pass either captcha + moderation or karma check. A great way to gain karma would be to review the moderation queue.

How do you stop spammers from building up their karma by reviewing that moderation queue by upvoting their own spammy submissions?

The system just needs to remove the possibility of a closed loop that could be entirely automated. Some part of the loop of gaining or loaning karma must involve content creation that is rated by known good human actors.

Timing is actually one of the simplest techniques to game. Create the account and wait. Content creation is one of the best ways to ensure no gaming is happening.

Re: "Rate My Startup" Post Policy

#128

Post by matwood » Wed, Nov 03, 2010, 3:26 AM UTC

yesimahuman wrote: post #49

markkat wrote: 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.

What about just requiring a certain number of active days being signed up? Is there data that shows spam is ever posted by long running users?

I think this could work. If you make it something like 60 days that's not too harsh on new users, but will slow spammers down. If a spammer does wait 60 days and post an obvious spam link then gets banned they are stuck waiting again.

The only problem here is a spammer that creates a ton of accounts and then uses them all at once after the 60 day threshold.

Re: "Rate My Startup" Post Policy

#129

Post by Kaizyn » Wed, Nov 03, 2010, 3:29 AM UTC

Paul, I understand that you consider Hacker News your baby and are loathe to relinquish some control over it. However, because you have other obligations that are more pressing than playing with the News.YC code, maybe it is time to start considering moving this "site" in the direction of well-established open source projects. The Python model in particular comes to mind as reasonable.

As issues arise on the site, some form of public debate on the issue ensues and someone is tasked with implementing the change to the Arc/Hacker News site code based on the final approved solution. You give the submitted patch a careful look over and once everything is satisfactory, it goes live on the site. Just something to think about.

Re: "Rate My Startup" Post Policy

#130

Post by erikano » Wed, Nov 03, 2010, 3:34 AM UTC

tptacek wrote: post #31

Jiminy! People: he's just saying I'm too busy to fix this the right way today, so you'll all have to make do with this band-aid . Can we stop with the star-crossed imaginings of startup questions lost to the ages because of karma thresholds? If you have a real product you want to rate, and you can't post it, just find someone who posts regularly and who has their contact info in their profile. Then: send them an emai…

> If you have a real product you want to rate, and you can't post it, just find someone who posts regularly and who has their contact info in their profile. Then: send them an email and ask for help.

I like this idea, and from what other have said about this, I got the following idea: How about letting regulars promote/vouch for RMS posts. That way, the person behind the site can post it and it will still be clear that it is not spam.