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

Everything we like is a psyop?

techcrunch.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

191–200 of 262 posts

Re: Everything we like is a psyop?

#191

Post by jottinger »

gib444 wrote: post #159
jottinger wrote: post #54

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…

But also don't squander the traffic with default dark mode with low contrast ;) Use the device mode hint at least The font for the headlines also looks 'off' to me. Letters too close together maybe

Hmm, It's supposed to be using the device mode. I'll look at the UI code and see if I can fix that. I use dark mode and my eyes work well with the framing, so any information here is welcomed. Will tune.

Re: Everything we like is a psyop?

#192

Post by Schmerika »

arjie wrote: post #79

Well, one thing I've discovered with the advent of AI music is that there are lots of things I like that are not particularly notable. I can listen to the 100th "1996 ESCAPE FROM DATA CITY + Unreal Tournament Mix" and enjoy it. I can't say that I've "discovered" an artist who then went on to become big. Back in the day, on amie.st there were quite a lot of cheap singles that I really enjoyed too but I can't find thos…

> The psyop is perfectly okay.

Is it?

You really don't mind if everything that gets put in front of you is controlled?

What if the people who talk about class war, the people who speak up about US and Israeli terror and torture and atrocities, the people who speak up for the voiceless are never/very rarely permitted to surface by the 'tastemaker' algorithm's controller?

Because it sure seems like that's at least partly the case today, and rapidly getting worse.

Re: Everything we like is a psyop?

#193

Post by jottinger »

eptcyka wrote: post #130
jottinger wrote: post #90

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

This man will build a product no one uses and then complain about the world not being ready for his genius instead of using the tools that everyone else uses to give himself a chance at success.

Hrm. If you're talking about me: I doubt it. I've been a programmer for 30+ years: I've built a LOT of products, some of which got used, some of which ... didn't. If I was going to complain, that'd be new.

And I know how to do SEO and why. And I'm just not interested. "Success" for me... well, I mean, I'd love to retire today based on the brazilians of dollars some mogul hands me for the IP behind the site, but, uh, that's not what it's for. SEO at the service layer? Sure, it has a mode for the bots, it tries to make scanning easy for the machines. But at the content level... nah, I have been watching the world tune information - one aspect of the psyop the OP talked about - for decades, and I can't bring myself to do it.

Re: Everything we like is a psyop?

#194

Post by jottinger »

the-mitr wrote: post #140
jottinger wrote: post #54

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…

Your comment reminds me of a quote by the Dutch artist M.C. Escher, that has helped in my lows > How slowly one advances in a boat that does not float along with the stream in a specific direction! How much easier it is when one can connect with the work of great predecessors whose value is not doubted by anyone. A personal experiment, a construction whose foundations one must dig himself and whose walls one must ere…

That's an excellent quote and I love it. I think of it more as Thoreau, or in my own terms, but I LOVE that quote, which I'd never seen before.

Re: Everything we like is a psyop?

#195

Post by jottinger »

wartywhoa23 wrote: post #161
cpa wrote: 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.

Ooof! If I'd thought of that, I'd have kept my trap shut. :(

Art as expression, not as market campaigns, will still capture our imaginations - that's more my driving force than trying to sell more hotdogs.

Re: Everything we like is a psyop?

#196

Post by jottinger »

Rekindle8090 wrote: post #132
jottinger wrote: post #54

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…

"Dang that hurt to read, here's an advertisement!" Why is this every 3rd comment on this site? Every single post has multiple comments that are "I hate that, here's my solution"

This is the second comment like that. It was honestly not intended - it was actually me trying to respond in my own context to the post, and WHY I was responding; "why" is more important to me than "what," and I have a hard time saying "this" without explaining why I felt "this" - or at least trying to explore it. I'm working on a site; reading the "this kind of thing is how people do things these days" actually made the concept of working on the site (which I hope has value) harder. That's what I was saying, or trying to; the "advertisement" was context, not intent, or else I'd have tried to post my own thing to HN saying "look at how ossum my seite are!"

Re: Everything we like is a psyop?

#197

Post by throwanem »

vermilingua wrote: post #153
ButlerianJihad wrote: post #136

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Okay, I squinted hard at that notation “1‰” and had Gemini explain it to me, and it appears that you made no typos, but I couldn’t let that go unexplained!

ButlerianJihad… had Gemini explain it to you…

Well, you know. Every med student goes through this "I Am An Earthly God" phase. Usually it passes. But the guy isn't obviously in favor of the concept for which his account is named, so there isn't the contradiction here that appears to exist on the face of it. (Speaking of usernames, hello, Grima! How on Middle-earth did you survive that fall?)

Re: Everything we like is a psyop?

#198

Post by watwut »

jaredklewis wrote: post #115
jottinger wrote: post #90

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

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.

It is different. If you SEO, you are actively changing content toward worst and less interesting. That is not the same as making the decision between market and not-market.

Re: Everything we like is a psyop?

#199

Post by Quarrelsome »

Schmerika wrote: post #184
Quarrelsome wrote: post #162

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.

Oh look at that, Quarrelsome's going for the 'righteous anger' dollar. That's a good; that's a good market.

I am reminded of the second episode of Black Mirror :D.

Re: Everything we like is a psyop?

#200

Post by wartywhoa23 »

kilroy123 wrote: post #190
wartywhoa23 wrote: post #183

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A first-hand anecdote: I write music. Ambient variety, you know, almost static drone, very niche style per se. Never did anything to promote it in any way. Just released it via my friend's digital label on a handful of platforms. Never had more than ~100 listens a month, and never expected that to change and earn any substantial royalties. One day, the friend calls and tells he's willing to pay me some pretty penny,…

Got a link? I want to hear it.

Well, I don't want to make this look like a coordinated psyop in the vein of the topic, sorry)..
Post reply on HN