New here, anyone can post anything? | Hacker News Reader

New here, anyone can post anything?

11 pointsCharlotte_day21 comments

One of our primary competitor posted stupid things about my business. I can't comment. It's taking on Google now. Any suggestions?

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I don't have the budget to take them to court and I don't make false claims just to persuade.

2. I don't have budget to hire marketing company and crush them.

3. I believe it jealousy that's why they did it.

4. Hackernews should be more moderated. I can't comment on their post I don't know why.

5. The problem is just with hackernews. They posted an post on this site and one on twitter. I replied on twitter. But the hackernews results are rankling on Google. And I can't comment on it. I really need some advice

Start by contacting the hackernews staff. Contact email can be found at the bottom of each page. I’m not sure what the moderation policy looks like but Dang has been doing an amazing job keeping hn in good order so drop him an email at the aforementioned contact email and see where it leads.

Good luck.

you failed to find a negative post until it was so old it was locked, and its hackernews that should change?

If you really care what the internet is saying about your business, you should be checking regularly. If you don't care about the internet (and I know several local businesses that don't), then its not a problem to bring up.

How should I manage everything. I can't check every site possible. I am single person managing clients, family and finances.

Yes hackernews should improve. Anyone can post anything anywhere. But they all allow the other person to clarify things and comment.

I do care about internet because my clients care. I lost a client because of this reason and he told me about it after I asked multiple questions.

I'm sorry - but that's part of owning a business. There's gonna be stuff you miss, mistakes you make, etc. Coming someplace you've admitted you've never been before, and claiming they need to 'change' because you're upset is just silly. You have not idea how the moderation works here, so how can you claim it needs to 'change' or 'improve'? For example, look at the down votes I'm accumulating trying to explain this to you. Also, note we're responding to each other with no problems. So it would seem a bit unfair to blame HN...

As for 'check every site possible' - you should probably be checking the ones you care about on a regular basis. For instance, googling your company name (a 'vanity search'). HN is actually pretty small potatoes compared to FB, Twitter, Yelp!, etc. You might want to check those sites too. And I kid you not, there are companies will 'manage your online reputation' if you would prefer to just outsource it.

You can activate Google alerts, which will tell you whenever your company is mentioned online https://www.google.com/alerts

You might want to contact HN to report what they did. I think if they proved that the post is against HN rules/guidelines they will deleted it or flagged the post. :)

Sorry I deleted my comment I thought you were talking about libel showing up on Google about your business. Not specifically about a HN post showing up about your business

Start a blog for your business. Create content that is true and positive about your business. You probably don't want to directly rebut the post in question as that could invoke the Streisand Effect, but point by point educate people about the facts.

(Not intended as a comprehensive strategy, just one suggestion.)

I think you made the same mistake I did. They want HN to allow them to comment on a post here defaming their business.

It looks like a HN post is causing all the trouble. No doubt Dang will come to the rescue.

This is the dang (aka Dan Gackle) in question that people keep mentioning:

https://news.ycombinator.com/user?id=dang

That profile provides his contact email that no one seems to have listed in comments here.

I don't know if dang can help with this. I don't have sufficient info. But he's the person to talk to to find out what can be done on HN.

Thanks, blogging will take time. But will do all I can.

Yes it will takes time, but you might also increase your presence in social media because it is excellent in gaining audience.

Agree with this. If your business has enough other content and is building goodwill through other channels, then one hacker news post isn’t going to tank things.

Anyone can reply to anything, unless it's already been killed. If so, Google should (I think?) catch up fairly soon.

Anybody else know why someone wouldn't be able to reply to something specific, but able to post in general?

It's because it was an old post.

I am unable to comment on the post, these results are coming in Google search results

Is it an old post?

Yes, its old. I was going through Google search and saw it. I can clarify things in Twitter but can't comment here.

Pretty sure posts get frozen automatically once they're old. I would second geoah's suggestion to contact the staff using the contact email at the footer of this site. Ask if there's any way they could help you under the circumstances.

We need it elaborated

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