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Everything we like is a psyop?

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Re: Everything we like is a psyop?

#161
post #133

Dang, that hurt to read. I'm starting up a new news-ish site like the old TheServerSide.com, at https://bytecode.news , and I'm faced with the question of "how do I generate traffic in the face of AI and all the people willing to market, market, astroturf, market, market?" I'm not that kind of personality, I don't want to do tiktok or whatever the kids do, I'd far rather accept organic and slow growth over meteoric a…

Top comment of a frontpage post, you're not doing that bad at marketing.

That can be automated quite easily these days. Just make your bot/scraper scan for anything that blames something or otherwise fits narratives that can be used as a vehicle of your own promotion, and hit that.

P.S. Not necessarily implying that the grandparent resorted to that.

Re: Everything we like is a psyop?

#163
post #112

This is not true though. My two favorite bands from the past year were poorly-attended shows that I stumbled into. You can still seek out good underground, obscure artists - you just have to look for them. Not trying to be elitist - like what you like. I just really feel like little artists need the support. Plus, it feels like there is a bit more satisfying agency and fate in looking for new things rather than being…

The whole psyop thing is only an issue if you use "popularity" and mass appeal (people following in instagram, etc) as a signal for finding stuff. The alternative is to listen to less filtered/signalless stuff (which isn't hard - bandcamp new releases lists (or my bandhiking app) or even their trending charts which seem to be unpopular enough that it's not entirely controlled by marketing (lots of unlistenable stuff…

You dropped this: )

Re: Everything we like is a psyop?

#164

Earlier quoted context omitted.

SEO, Reddit and Paid ads probably

I'm not going to optimize content for SEO - been on the other side of that, and I think it creates content that's bland and ineffective. Humans gonna human, machines gonna machine, and I'm not paying for ads. If humans want the site to succeed, it'll succeed. Otherwise, it won't. Such is life.

[dead]

Re: Everything we like is a psyop?

#166
post #138

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I kind of see what you are saying, but it reminds me of “if you build it, they will come.” They won’t come, because they won’t even know about it. A more accurate aphorism would have been “if you build it and tell everyone about it, some of them might come.” Humans probably don’t want the site to succeed, because they mostly don’t know it exists.

Perhaps. How much SEO happens here on HN? How much do they spend to tell everyone about it? I'm guessing: Not much; maybe zero. But people come here, anyway. (That doesn't mean that it's capable of independently sustaining itself, but people do show up.)

> How much do they spend to tell everyone about it?

You could see every YCombinator investment as a kind of sidelong marketing for HN.

Re: Everything we like is a psyop?

#167
post #133

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Top comment of a frontpage post, you're not doing that bad at marketing.

That can be automated quite easily these days. Just make your bot/scraper scan for anything that blames something or otherwise fits narratives that can be used as a vehicle of your own promotion, and hit that. P.S. Not necessarily implying that the grandparent resorted to that.

Please keep in mind that such a use is against the Guidelines[0] and will be downvoted and flagged rather quickly.

Since 2023 I always check the creation date of a user before I click on any link in their comment.

[0]: https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html

Re: Everything we like is a psyop?

#168

Bill Hicks had a really good point when he said people who work in advertising or marketing should kill themselves. They turn everyone elses experiences to shit just so they can have more money.

Too bad he then became Alex Jones.

What do you mean? He pretty much died at the peak of his career in comedy. I don’t remember any Alex Jonesy material

Re: Everything we like is a psyop?

#169

Bill Hicks had a really good point when he said people who work in advertising or marketing should kill themselves. They turn everyone elses experiences to shit just so they can have more money.

Wouldn’t it be wiser to ignore the messages of adversaries and marketers rather than suggesting people kill themselves?

Who hasn’t fallen prey to marketing and propaganda on social media?

Re: Everything we like is a psyop?

#170
As a musician in a small band: find a venue that sells tickets at the door and just go look at some bands whose name you have never heard of.

If they sell tickets at the door, that means they may not be in one of the big ticketing monopolies. Going for bands/artists you have never heard of will give you a mixed bag, sure, but (1) it will be your mixed bag, (2) you support the ecosystem that creates new bands and (3) it is much more authentic and personal, because it is usally also smaller.

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