Time to ditch the arrogant tech blogs • Hacker News Board

Re: Time to ditch the arrogant tech blogs

#41

Post by ahi » Wed, Apr 11, 2012, 5:14 PM UTC

Aloisius wrote: post #34

untog wrote: post #4

Arrogance, I don't care about. The shameless corruption, I do. PandoDaily, in particular, is funded by VC firms that also fund tech startups. They're basically buying coverage for their investments- it's taking the system that got Arrington fired and putting it on steroids. It works out great for the investment company, it works out great for their companies, the only person it doesn't work out for is that actual rea…

PandoDaily, in particular, is funded by VC firms that also fund tech startups. They're basically buying coverage for their investments I would like to point out that HackerNews is run by a VC firm and YC alumni effectively get free coverage here.

Disclosure matters. Everyone knows what is going on here.

Re: Time to ditch the arrogant tech blogs

#42

Post by methoddk » Wed, Apr 11, 2012, 5:19 PM UTC

tptacek wrote: post #35

methoddk wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Then there needs to be an alternative. Anything Arrington, Lacy, etc. are affiliated with will be plagued with corruption, terrible writers, and self-important nonsense.

There doesn't need to be an alternative if what we have now is effective for YC companies. This isn't a moral issue. You might have an easier time finding an alternative to HN.

Useful for one thing but pollution for another.

Re: Time to ditch the arrogant tech blogs

#43

Post by [deleted] » Wed, Apr 11, 2012, 5:19 PM UTC

tptacek wrote: post #35

methoddk wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Then there needs to be an alternative. Anything Arrington, Lacy, etc. are affiliated with will be plagued with corruption, terrible writers, and self-important nonsense.

There doesn't need to be an alternative if what we have now is effective for YC companies. This isn't a moral issue. You might have an easier time finding an alternative to HN.

[deleted]

Re: Time to ditch the arrogant tech blogs

#44

Post by tptacek » Wed, Apr 11, 2012, 5:20 PM UTC

methoddk wrote: post #42

tptacek wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There doesn't need to be an alternative if what we have now is effective for YC companies. This isn't a moral issue. You might have an easier time finding an alternative to HN.

Useful for one thing but pollution for another.

Oh, I agree with you that it makes HN worse.

Re: Time to ditch the arrogant tech blogs

#45

Post by JVIDEL » Wed, Apr 11, 2012, 5:21 PM UTC

Whatever you do, if you get traction you are king.

If you don't no matter how much coverage you get you will go down.

The only precursor for traction are users, tech blog coverage wont do anything about it: even consumer gadget blogs are niche compared to the mainstream media, and even then most people care a lot more about gadgets than webapps.

.........unless all their friends are using them, that's when they care, but that's growth which comes after.......that's right, TRACTION.

Re: Time to ditch the arrogant tech blogs

#46

Post by duxup » Wed, Apr 11, 2012, 5:41 PM UTC

rys wrote: post #36

Aren't there a number of publications covering this space that are run well and provide ethical coverage? Just read them instead.

Are there? How do you know if they do ethical coverage?

Not trying to be a jerk, seriously asking. How does anyone make those determinations?

Re: Time to ditch the arrogant tech blogs

#47

Post by rvkennedy » Wed, Apr 11, 2012, 5:49 PM UTC

nikcub wrote: post #24

Those numbers sounded too low, which prompted me to look into it. They were both featured on other editions of Techcrunch, not the main site. One was on Techcrunch UK[1], with a short post, the other on Techcrunch TV (way down with a single link in a short story)[2], both before the merge. To say that it is important to the point of the story to mention that they weren't featured on the main Techcrunch site is an und…

Every time a random blog like this surfaces on HN I make a point of considering the source, by clicking through a few of the other articles. In this and many other cases, scratch the bland surface of the linked post and you'll find this kind of nutty political screed: http://www.kernelmag.com/yiannopoulos/1786/extreme-cognitive...

So handle with care.

Re: Time to ditch the arrogant tech blogs

#48

Post by untog » Wed, Apr 11, 2012, 7:08 PM UTC

Aloisius wrote: post #34

untog wrote: post #4

Arrogance, I don't care about. The shameless corruption, I do. PandoDaily, in particular, is funded by VC firms that also fund tech startups. They're basically buying coverage for their investments- it's taking the system that got Arrington fired and putting it on steroids. It works out great for the investment company, it works out great for their companies, the only person it doesn't work out for is that actual rea…

PandoDaily, in particular, is funded by VC firms that also fund tech startups. They're basically buying coverage for their investments I would like to point out that HackerNews is run by a VC firm and YC alumni effectively get free coverage here.

Any coverage YC alum get is by us upvoting them, though.

Re: Time to ditch the arrogant tech blogs

#49

Post by volaski » Wed, Apr 11, 2012, 7:17 PM UTC

I've been covered on Techcrunch, Mashable, ReadWriteWeb, TheNextWeb, GigaOm, Lifehacker, etc., multiple times, and I can say for sure that this guy doesn't know what he's talking about.

Sure it's not as effective as long time ago when there used to be this thing called "being Techcrunch'd", but it's nowhere as ineffective as that guy pointed out. It doesn't matter if his original statement included the part about "techcrunch UK" or not. His argument is based on his limited experience of being covered on TechCrunch UK which no one even reads, and a little mention from a short story.

I wouldn't say "ditch the arrogant tech blogs because they're not effective", if I've never been really covered by one. If you get covered properly, it still brings in tons of traffic.

Re: Time to ditch the arrogant tech blogs

#50

Post by [deleted] » Wed, Apr 11, 2012, 8:26 PM UTC

bishnu wrote: post #17

untog wrote: post #4

Arrogance, I don't care about. The shameless corruption, I do. PandoDaily, in particular, is funded by VC firms that also fund tech startups. They're basically buying coverage for their investments- it's taking the system that got Arrington fired and putting it on steroids. It works out great for the investment company, it works out great for their companies, the only person it doesn't work out for is that actual rea…

It also doesn't work out for anyone working at tech startups that aren't funded by the VCs behind PandoDaily. That is the reason this is a Bad Thing, not "the reader is being poorly informed".

[deleted]