Comment by tptacek | Hacker News Reader

Comment by tptacek | Hacker News Reader

Hacker News is not fair when it comes to YC companies. This would have been a valid post if it concerned some other well-known company. It probably won't be for Wakemate. I don't know that it's Graham killing the stories (there's a pronounced YC bias here, for obvious reasons, and most of us can "flag"), but that doesn't matter; the effect is the same.

I don't like it, but I accept it. There aren't so many important YC companies right now that this is a real problem. I suggest: write a blog post with your open letter, promote it on Twitter, here, and Reddit, and let it pick up steam that way.

Hacker News isn't a complaint board for YC companies, so start by refactoring your story so that it doesn't appear like you're trying to use the site that way.

Or, you know, get on with your life. I've written off Wakemate. They can keep my $5. Best of luck.

That's unfair. I don't kill links to blog posts critical of YC funded companies. The reason I killed that post was that it was using an HN post to send a message to one.

It's explicitly against the site guidelines to use HN posts to send messages to YC, and has been many years. We ask anyone who has a message for us to send it by email. This is the first time anyone has used HN to try to send a message to one of the companies we've funded, but that seems close enough that it's reasonable to kill it. There was certainly nothing in the post to engage one's intellectual curiosity.

I'll admit that the exposure it would get on hacker news factored into deciding to write it here. They have a valid excuse to ignore my own blog, less so here (well, I thought that anyway).

Nevertheless, I see posts like these pop up on hacker news from time to time and thus considered it 'fair game' for wakemate too. Apparently not.

I respect you for dismissing Wakemate. You offer valid reasons elsewhere in this thread too. But it matters more to me. It's not about that lousy five bucks for me, of course it isn't. As I said in my original post. that 5 bucks represent trust (and, on their part, commitment.) Admittedly not much, and they do not have to give it, but hell, They'd be a much better company if they did try to keep that trust.

I suspect [hope?] the reason it was deleted was down to the fact it was directed at the founders (and was angling for a response).

A "what happened to wakemate then?" post may have survived.

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