Hacker News Reader

I'm wondering how they found out it was someone from OpenTable.

Detecting someone using multiple fake accounts (maybe from the same IP) is one thing, but how to track its origin? Did they use approximate location of the IP and saw it's close to OpenTable offices?

View on HN

Probably because the cancels were followed up by aggressive sales calls that mentioned the issue. A quote from the article:

"The no-shows were accompanied by an OpenTable inquiry about Tavern’s 'sagging sales,' with a renewed attempt to convince them to switch."

So they were too aggressive. They should have used fake bookings much less and increase them much more slowly, and don't show with "hey, wanna switch?" right after.

Should have? You realize you're arguing for something that's morally reprehensible and legally questionable (fake bookings) in the context of something else whose morality is dubious at best (how should OpenTable know about sagging sales in the first place if they're not already affiliated with OpenTable?)

Reply on news.ycombinator.com