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Everything we like is a psyop?

techcrunch.com

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Re: Everything we like is a psyop?

#81

Post by Chaosvex »

lmm wrote: post #57
Chaosvex wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I like how that article claims PR firms don't lie and then proceeds to discuss how their best PR campaign was effectively a lie. > We estimated, based on some fairly informal math, that there were about 5000 stores on the Web. We got one paper to print this number, which seemed neutral enough. But once this "fact" was out there in print, we could quote it to other publications, and claim that with 1000 users we had 2…

It sounds like they did good-faith estimate that there were 5000 stores out there and really believed they had 20% of the market? I wouldn't call that a lie as such.

To add to what the other poster said, it's a logical leap to go from 5000 stores to 20% share based on having 1000 users. What does the number of stores have to do with the number of users?

It doesn't make any sense and that's because it's a lie.

Re: Everything we like is a psyop?

#82

Post by jrecyclebin »

tombert wrote: post #46
jrecyclebin wrote: post #36

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…

Something I did a few years ago was buy a thing on eBay of 300 random CDs for like $10. Most of the CDs were unsurprisingly stuff that was pretty common, but I would occasionally find a few artists that I had never heard of that I ended up really liking, like "Hoss" by Lagwagon. I haven't done this in awhile, but I might do it again soonish. It was fun digging through all the CDs to find stuff I ended up actually lik…

Found a favorite band through a similar technique: pile of CDs given from a friend who worked at a music store and no one wanted them.

You have to be willing to sift through junk. Which I think is hard for many to accept. However, the algorithms are often giving you junk anyway. Kind of no way around it.

Re: Everything we like is a psyop?

#83

Post by egonschiele »

I actually don't think Getting Killed the album is well mixed, what turned me on to Geese was their From The Basement performance https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qIol9hig2G4 the music and the mixing are incredible. I've followed From The Basement for a while, ever since their collaboration with Radiohead. So maybe this was a psyop, but the music is genuinely really good.

Re: Everything we like is a psyop?

#84

Post by stavros »

genewitch wrote: post #31
codezero wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

At a previous company our marketing team had a $50k/mo budget with an agency that got their basically verbatim posts posted by all the tech blogs like TechCrunch, venture beat, Huffington Post etc. I got really aware of the tech media and I read every story as intentional marketing.

don't fall into the Gell-Mann Amnesia trap. Any media that has advertisements is already not in your interest. If a media has to weigh losing an advertiser or telling the truth, very few would choose truth. Scruples don't put food on the table, believe me, i know. This means that marketing budgets run everything, from the morning news talk to the evening nightly news, and everything between, is carefully crafted to k…

Yep, banning advertising would be great here. You can't accept money unless it's for buying your product, and that's it.

Then again, I'm sure some loopholes would be found.

Re: Everything we like is a psyop?

#85

Post by tasseff »

absoluteunit1 wrote: post #71
simplyluke wrote: post #5

I think most users of websites like reddit, x, and yes even HN don't realize how much traffic is inorganic. Marketing firms, government agencies, and many other interested parties with money to burn are absolutely aware that you search "best {product} reddit" I've commented on this before, but I strongly suspect much of the narrative around AI is being formed with strong inputs from these patterns. What's your basis…

> I think most users of websites like reddit, x, and yes even HN don't realize how much traffic is inorganic. Came here to say this - I have always been extremely cautious and assumed most things online were just marketing tactics. But I never realize how far and how strategic some of these campaigns are. I’ve recently started really getting my hands dirty with marketing for an app I’m building and the things I’ve le…

not sure if ad for Attention Merchants

Re: Everything we like is a psyop?

#86

Post by catcowcostume »

jrecyclebin wrote: post #36

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…

[flagged]

Re: Everything we like is a psyop?

#88

Post by jrecyclebin »

degamad wrote: post #77
jrecyclebin wrote: post #36

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…

Years ago, this line formed in my head, and has stuck around - it has been long enough that I can't remember if I read it somewhere or if I came up with it myself, but I think it's relevant here: "There are only two ways to find good new music - listen to a lot of bad new music, or outsource your listening choices to someone else - and the second doesn't protect you against the first." Outsourcing your listening choi…

Well, yeah, it's all subjective - and actually quite tenuous - so you won't know good and bad until you actually make the call on it. Maybe you've had the experience even of coming around on some music you previously thought was bad.

Or like: one time I listened to a bunch of new music I had dug up and wasn't sure there was anything I liked. Two days later, I had a song in my head. Turned out to be one of the ones I had listened to. But I had to listen to everything all over again to find it! ദി(ㅠ﹏ㅠ) Glad I did - there were other gems in there.

Anyway, great quote.

Re: Everything we like is a psyop?

#89

Post by jottinger »

sneak wrote: post #75
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…

Choosing to fail means you shouldn't begin the project in the first place. Correspondingly, if you are beginning the project, you should not make choices that will result in failure.

I don't think i'm "choosing to fail," I'm choosing to accept the outcome given an effort to prevent it. Sometimes you try and it doesn't work out; I'm not committing the mortgage to the site or the effort, and I'd like it to pan out because I think its progenitor had a raison d'etre, and I was part of it when it was good and I think there's room for it now.

And if the moment's gone, well... that's the way it goes. That's not the same as "choosing to fail."

Re: Everything we like is a psyop?

#90

Post by jottinger »

absoluteunit1 wrote: post #78
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…

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.
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