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Comment by BigCanOfTuna | Hacker News Reader

I think this "open letter" is a little disingenuous. A nice heartwarming letter of thanks by a poster that signed up to HN 4 days ago. Maybe I'm cynical, but this seems like astro-turfing.

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What a nasty thing to say. Can you take a second and consider what might prompt you to go out of your way to write this?

I don't see it as nasty, just an observation of various facts that lead me to believe (perhaps incorrectly) that the post has ulterior motives. But since you ask, this is what lead me to comment how I did.

- HN is about sharing and opinions, so I decide to share mine.

- The poster opened an HN account 4 days ago and the startup was launched 5 days ago.

- "Open Letter" titled posts almost always leads to someone bashing a product or individual. Imagine how relieved HN will be when they see that it is indeed a "heart warming" thank you letter...did you feel good reading this?

- Without the product the startup wouldn't be here. All credit goes to Balsamiq while conveniently encouraging you to view the startup.

- And, as a software developer (who has one more than once been NOT paid for services rendered) this one really raises my suspicion. The poster received the software 8 monts ago and will get the $79 to Balsamic ASAP.

Anyway, right or wrong, that is how I came to my original comment. I'll take my down votes if necessary.

edit: formatting

If he wanted to pump his startup, he'd have pumped his startup. As it stands, the only thing he had to say about it was his name. The post was about Peldi.

HN needs a lot of policing, but much, much less of this bogus fake kind.

You shouldn't get down votes. I totally get where you're coming from, BigCanOfTuna. I'm not perfect, and maybe I shouldn't have linked to Quipol at all. When I said I'll get you the $79 ASAP, I thought it would make people laugh. I meant it, but I also thought it would be funny. Also, I didn't know that open letters were notoriously rude. I just thought they were open to everyone instead of on a one-to-one basis (the openness was my way of giving back to Peldi by giving him a glowing, deserved review). Anyhow, you're good. I appreciate you explaining your rationale, and I'll try to do better in the future. If I violated any written or unwritten codes of conduct on HN, please accept my apologies. Thanks, BigCanofTuna.

Actually it appears he's correct.

Why, because he mentioned the name of his startup three times, without once even saying what it does?

What a discouraging thread.

Because among other things both these comments are from the same IP address:

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3232690

I feel really bad for you having to deal with stuff like huge voting rings and people making sockpuppet accounts but sometimes I wish you'd just keep stuff like this behind the scenes.

He's astroturfing... a thank-you note?

There's real manipulation on HN. This wasn't it. Look at the comment thread you jumped into more carefully.

This place just gets more and more frustrating. It must be 10x worse to own it, but still.

Settle down man.

Definitely wasn't a scheme or evil plan, just my roommate who happens to be my loving girlfriend. Even so, I understand your frustration, and I'm sorry about that, Paul. Lesson learned.

It might be because I asked my 3 roommates to vote up on the link for me. That was clearly a very stupid and selfish idea, and I'm sorry for doing so. Like I said to BigCanofTuna, I'll learn (fast) to be a better community member. I apologize.

Hey Paul, that's harsh. What gives?

Oh man, that's hard to hear. I'm sorry that it comes off that way. While building Quipol, I was more of an onlooker. Maybe I should have been more active earlier.

It shouldn't be hard to hear. If it's not true then who cares what I think. Like I said, I probably just be cynical.

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