a YC company being unethical, shocking...
I am shocked! I mean I am shocked that this post didn't get flagged immediately ofc.
RevisionDojo, a YC startup, is running astroturfing campaigns targeting kids?
61–70 of 99 posts
Re: RevisionDojo, a YC startup, is running astroturfing campaigns targeting kids?
#62Proposal to change title from "kids" to "teens"?
Re: RevisionDojo, a YC startup, is running astroturfing campaigns targeting kids?
#63Astroturfing on reddit has been a thing for over a decade and has really accelerated over the last few years. There's several companies where literally that is their business model to promote your product or service on reddit. I saw one for sale on acquire.com a while back for 7 figures
I'm seeing a much less sophisticated campaign for this on my city's subreddits recently... Someone will ask a weird or generic question, and either poster or the top comment is a throwaway account with a spiel about checking $site_name.
It's exhausting, especially since people will write out real advice and corrections about how to deal with rats, bedbugs, neighborhoods, etc. and it all goes into the ether in hopes someone will get scammed. Or maybe it's an SEO thing because the site name is so generic it's un-googleable. I hope it doesn't work.
Re: RevisionDojo, a YC startup, is running astroturfing campaigns targeting kids?
#64Earlier quoted context omitted.
They do back a lot of companies. Is there any evidence that they are pushing unethical or illegal business practices on their portfolio companies at a rate higher than non-YC start ups?
Why do you require comparison in order to determine whether or not this practice is unethical?
That's not at all what he said.
Re: RevisionDojo, a YC startup, is running astroturfing campaigns targeting kids?
#65Earlier quoted context omitted.
lol it absolute does you ever notice how most YC announcements have comments disabled?
Those are job ads (a special type of post), not normal user discussions. Actual YC announcements do not have comments disabled.
They do however often ask friends and family to upvote and leave comments. Like "we have been very happy using XYZ" which is against HN rules but not that strictly enforced. I feel like it is extra-lax towards YC companies but maybe I'm imagining things.
Re: RevisionDojo, a YC startup, is running astroturfing campaigns targeting kids?
#66Astroturfing on reddit has been a thing for over a decade and has really accelerated over the last few years. There's several companies where literally that is their business model to promote your product or service on reddit. I saw one for sale on acquire.com a while back for 7 figures
I'm seeing a much less sophisticated campaign for this on my city's subreddits recently... Someone will ask a weird or generic question, and either poster or the top comment is a throwaway account with a spiel about checking $site_name. It's exhausting, especially since people will write out real advice and corrections about how to deal with rats, bedbugs, neighborhoods, etc. and it all goes into the ether in hopes s…
This is the same kind of spam that overwhelmed blog comment sections and sent everyone scurrying to Reddit and Facebook 15 years ago. The spam was always had a generic comment praising the post and a line below shilling dick pills and Prada bags, but spelled like v_1_@_g_r_@ and the URL was simiarly obfuscated so they didn't trip a spam filter.
Re: RevisionDojo, a YC startup, is running astroturfing campaigns targeting kids?
#67What is this cheatsheets and predicted exam leaks stuff? I don't mean to sound naive but is cheating a significant part of the test prep space?
I looked into founding a company in this space and steered straight back out of it because yes, by far and away the VAST majority of demand in the market of study tools for high/middle schoolers is cheating. Below that, parents are involved and there's a market there (but a bad one, because of double sales where you have to sell through the parent to the child even though those two actors have misaligned incentives).…
That is interesting and kind of what I suspected anecdotally. I think it's unfortunate for people who aren't aware of all this. That is what I will say.
Re: RevisionDojo, a YC startup, is running astroturfing campaigns targeting kids?
#68Proposal to change title from "kids" to "teens"?
Teens are kids.
Re: RevisionDojo, a YC startup, is running astroturfing campaigns targeting kids?
#69Earlier quoted context omitted.
Don't forget about Honey! YC is full of scams.
They do back a lot of companies. Is there any evidence that they are pushing unethical or illegal business practices on their portfolio companies at a rate higher than non-YC start ups?
They don’t have to say anything. The market speaks for itself: do illegal stuff, don’t get caught, capture enough market share of whatever it is you are pursuing, and you will be rewarded handsomely by investors. The name of the game is capital return at whatever cost necessary. We will be living through the repercussions of this system for decades
Re: RevisionDojo, a YC startup, is running astroturfing campaigns targeting kids?
#70Earlier quoted context omitted.
Those are job ads (a special type of post), not normal user discussions. Actual YC announcements do not have comments disabled.
They do however often ask friends and family to upvote and leave comments. Like "we have been very happy using XYZ" which is against HN rules but not that strictly enforced. I feel like it is extra-lax towards YC companies but maybe I'm imagining things.
On the contrary, we particularly tell YC founders not to do this—mostly privately, but there's a public version of it at https://news.ycombinator.com/yli.html (scroll down to "Comments" and see the part in bold. That's me trying to scare them.)
We do tend to be more lenient when there's no evidence of organized manipulation, just friends/fans/users trying to be helpful and not realizing that it's actually unhelpful. What dedicated HN users tend not to realize is that such casual commenters usually have no idea how HN is supposed to work.
But this leniency isn't YC-specific. We're actually less lax when it comes to YC startups, for several reasons.