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A competitor crippled a $23.5M bootcamp by becoming a Reddit moderator

larslofgren.com

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Re: A competitor crippled a $23.5M bootcamp by becoming a Reddit moderator

#511

Post by sph »

trilogic wrote: post #470
saaaaaam wrote: post #442

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If I google ‘sverken hugston’ I don’t get any porn or prostitution results. Nor if I google just ‘sverken’.

Made this one for you: https://vimeo.com/1125804680 My clients (which are most the Gov, Uni, Med, are not happy for it but they got over it. My proposals for funds/contracts suddenly get denied unless I explain what is really happening. This is not only damage to reputation but also to business. I repeat this has to stop. Now the competent Authorities are investigating properly but as always they get off with a fine…

I can replicate by googling "sverken.se"

But also: what google shows here is what's being indexed on your website. It shows "porn and prostitution" because at one point that's what your website served. Was sverken.se ever in the hand of shady domain parking services that advertised porn services?

Strangely enough, the Internet Archive only saved the safe-for-work version (records start in Jan 2025, so the misdeed must have occurred before this date) - from a cursory look at the domain registration history, it seems it was expired and unregistered (or parked by someone else) between July and September 2025.

Still not Google's fault or the action of malicious botnets. My suggestion is to try and clear your indexing history for this website through the Google Search Console (https://search.google.com/search-console/)

Re: A competitor crippled a $23.5M bootcamp by becoming a Reddit moderator

#512

Post by elktown »

LaurensBER wrote: post #459
elktown wrote: post #443

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm just continuing the thread of conversation? And also because figuring out biases is basic critical thinking? Especially relevant in this kinda thread. Furthermore, I'm sick and tired of self-created right-wing narrative of censorship when they're ever so eager to do it to the fullest possible extent they can with their current powers and societal acceptance. And then we're not just talking about random people bei…

I understand, and while I don't fully agree I do agree that having some insight into biases could be relevant since moderation choices are always subjective. I would prefer not to link my Reddit account to my HN account furthermore it's common for comments to be deleted at a ban so I'm unable to give you the exact comments but happy to provide insight into any (perceived) biased! I have voted D66 ( https://en.wikiped…

> I would prefer not to link my Reddit account to my HN account

Understandable, no worries.

> I have voted D66 [..] during the last elections

I've been seeing sentiments like this before but I don't value them high because what matter is what people do and decide when things becomes hot and their professed principles need to be actually proven.

As an anecdote, and yes, I know it's an extreme example, but it's interesting to me and brings the point home: When listening to an audio book (it's on Audible if interested, recommended!) a while back that compiles a bunch of interviews with defendants of the Nuremberg trials, a surprising amount of them suggested, paraphrasing; "I was actually a liberal before the war!" (and also a strange amount of teachers curiously!).

Re: A competitor crippled a $23.5M bootcamp by becoming a Reddit moderator

#513

Post by f4uCL9dNSnQm »

lurk2 wrote: post #202
A_D_E_P_T wrote: post #3

Reddit should not be considered an authoritative source. Period. At this point it's the most astroturfed place on the internet. Accounts are bought and sold like cheap commodities. It's inherently unreliable. That said, in this instance Codesmith actually has an unusually strong defamation case. That Reddit mod is not anonymous, and has made solid claims (about nepotism with fabricated details, accusations of resume…

> At this point it's the most astroturfed place on the internet. YouTube is far worse and it isn’t even close.

Is it? I didn't notice any real issues besides crypto scam bots spamming comments with their conversations. Or do we count "influencers" peddling sponsored junk?

Re: A competitor crippled a $23.5M bootcamp by becoming a Reddit moderator

#514

Post by hilios »

LaurensBER wrote: post #501
hilios wrote: post #494

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You're listing several examples, including /r/conservative, yet even though this subreddit is widely known (on Reddit) to be a censored echo-chamber, you do not mention this aspect. I find it hard to believe, that this would be a coincidence.

From the HN guidelines: > Please respond to the strongest plausible interpretation of what someone says, not a weaker one that's easier to criticize. Assume good faith Let's aim to keep HN better and more pleasant to use than Reddit;)

I did explain my reasoning. You coincidentally not mentioning /r/conservatives censorship practices, simply doesn't appear plausible, given the context of your comment and demonstrated knowledge of reddit moderating practices.

Re: A competitor crippled a $23.5M bootcamp by becoming a Reddit moderator

#515

Post by stuaxo »

michaelnovati wrote: post #157
simianwords wrote: post #74

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I would really like to hear both sides to the story. But from the data it seems like you have been obsessively commenting on the subreddit about codesmith for more than a full year. And almost 80% have been negative. This looks unhinged because you are a moderator of the subreddit. What's the other side to this?

I was being threatened by anonymous Reddit accounts a few weeks ago so I made some defensive PR docs but I need to sleep on it to decide what to do. This is what I do all day: https://github.com/mnovati But yeah two sides to every story and if this has been going on for years, "1000 posts", there's clearly more to the story, and it's irresponsible to not reach out for comment if you are going to try to summarize that…

What does showing your github do with writing about writing negative posts about a company almost every single day ?

Re: A competitor crippled a $23.5M bootcamp by becoming a Reddit moderator

#516

Post by amiga386 »

Finbel wrote: post #200
fwipsy wrote: post #156

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Funny that you should mention a Reddit-originated conspiracy theory on an article about how Reddit is deteriorating as a source of information. I found this blog post: https://coagulopath.com/ghislaine-maxwell-does-not-have-a-se... which appears to conclusively refute the main evidence above, but I haven't independently verified. If you have stronger evidence than what appears to be copy-pasted AI output, I will re-e…

Your link actually don't touch upon what I found most compelling: That /u/maxwellhill stopped positing two days before her arrest and haven't posted again since then.

> If this was true, it would be the strongest piece of evidence so far.

> But it’s not.

> I’m sorry to tell you this, but /u/maxwellhill did post after the 2nd of July. Just not in public. He continued to perform moderator duties, interact with staff members, and answer private messages. Here’s a conversation between /u/hasharin and /u/maxwellhill that happened on the 9th.

> Additionally, here’s evidence that /u/maxwellhill made a post inside a private subreddit, nine days after the “Tr45son” one.

> This seems pretty bad for the theory. With Ghislaine Maxwell in jail awaiting charges, /u/maxwellhill is casually swapping PMs with reddit moderators and spitballing around policy ideas. How could they be the same person?

That's from the link.

I stopped posting to Reddit in December 2015 and haven't been back since. David Bowie died a few days later 10 January 2016. Am I David Bowie?

Re: A competitor crippled a $23.5M bootcamp by becoming a Reddit moderator

#517

Post by stuaxo »

michaelnovati wrote: post #366
Montymio wrote: post #260

Earlier quoted context omitted.

a judge would def consider the extreme nature that’s occurred here. the number of posts is astounding, and the SEO damage could be monetarily accounted for.

FWIW those posts that show up in search are not my posts and I don't have control over that. I don't "post" that much about Codesmith. I comment a lot about them.

Semantics.

Question still stands, why are you writing (posting or commenting) this almost every day.

I can't imagine being so obsessed by something for that long that I comment on it almost every day.

Re: A competitor crippled a $23.5M bootcamp by becoming a Reddit moderator

#518

Post by gregsadetsky »

thinkingemote wrote: post #337
idk1 wrote: post #334

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm not interested in doing this at all, but how does a person take over a subreddit? That sounds like a very difficult thing to do.

"Hi I noticed you weren't that online as recently as you were are you ok?" Wow that must be a lot of work Wow I feel for you, friend Yea id be happy to help out from time to time. --- But needs to happen with other things. Quite often seen in GitHub where an attacker can contribute to build trust. With Reddit, mini modding, regular submissions, good comments etc Defense includes not being shamed or pressured when lif…

This was exactly the playbook that led to the xz backdoor.

Just the quotes:

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=39909905

Very long page but a lot more in depth. Search for “Jigar Kumar pressured Lasse Collin”

https://securelist.com/xz-backdoor-story-part-2-social-engin...

And an overview:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/XZ_Utils_backdoor

Re: A competitor crippled a $23.5M bootcamp by becoming a Reddit moderator

#519

Post by stuaxo »

baobun wrote: post #55

Since it's getting downvoted hard and might be missed, FYI Michael is in the house. I encourage y'all to read the whole article before engaging. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45522396

It truely is a car crash.

It seems like he can't stop and will end up in court at some point.

Re: A competitor crippled a $23.5M bootcamp by becoming a Reddit moderator

#520

Post by Havoc »

Used to moderator a decent sized sub for a decent stint. Learned a fair bit from it. Eventually decided to step back because it’s a raw deal - all interactions are antagonistic, the torrent of confrontations is essentially endless, it’s not seen or appreciated by users and obviously not paid.

So not much of a personal payoff, right? UNLESS you’re the kind of person that thrives on drama, conflict and power trips.

Meaning this actively filters for people that are radioactively toxic

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