This Event is Cancelled | Hacker News Reader

This Event is Cancelled

londonist.com

18 pointsriffer10 comments

That has half the intended effect: Convince people that their poster was pointless.

However, it doesn't discourage future posters much (they'd have to know the 'cancelled' sign was fake, and if everyone knows that, they 'cancelled' sign doesn't work any more) and it doesn't do anything to clean the poster off.

Since the intent is to keep the place clean and beautiful, leaving the poster violates that. It still has to be removed, and it's still just as hard to remove it.

Flyposting in London is an organised, professional business. There are a few people doing it themselves, but the major campaigns are organised by large agencies on behalf of club promoters. The clubs design posters with the small print "not for flyposting", the agencies distribute them through freelancers who aren't told specifically what to do with the posters other than to get them seen. The only person who can be held liable is the guy on the street with the paste brush. The council can't go after the people paying for and profiting from flyposting, and they can't afford to remove enough posters to make it unprofitable.

The club promoters are well aware of what's going on and it's a significant disincentive for them to pay for flyposting if there's a chance that it will do their event more harm than good. The council aren't trying to completely stamp out flyposting, they're just trying to make it less attractive than flyering or advertising on pirate radio. It's a rather clever economic nudge, designed simply to increase the CPA of flyposting.

They'll start putting "not canceled" overlays, and then you really won't know what to think.

Seriously, though, it's clever even if it isn't sustainable. They'll just have to remain clever and adapt. "Darwin, shit happens, I Ching, whatever man, we gotta roll with it".

Why is this being posted on HN? Flagged.

From the guidelines: "Please don't submit comments complaining that a submission is inappropriate for the site. If you think something is spam or offtopic, flag it by going to its page and clicking on the "flag" link. (Not all users will see this; there is a karma threshold.) If you flag something, please don't also comment that you did."

Hmm, depends on your interpretation, I always deem flagging a submission worthy of asking why it was posted even though I disagree with it's content being worthy of HN. I don't consider that to be complaining, it's a valid question.

I generally like to admit that I flagged the post for discretionary purposes during a conversation in the comments, but since you're being pedantic and four other users agree, it doesn't do me any harm to leave that bit out when I ask why an article is being posted on HN.

I can't imagine any other way to interpret "If you flag something, please don't also comment that you did."

Please enlighten me?

No enlightening needed, I already explained that "Please don't submit comments complaining that a submission is inappropriate for the site." was up for interpretation (I wasn't complaining in my comment, I was asking a question); and also admitted that "it doesn't do me any harm to leave that bit out" (in reference to stating that I flagged something).

The London Borough of Tower Hamlets is attempting to hack the posters. That makes it eminently HN-worthy.

Hack the posters? I think the term "hack" is being stretched in that argument. If it were some clever social experiment, that would be different, this is merely an article about disgruntled city officials that decided to get mildly creative.

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