Ask HN: Are links and posts to HN being stolen? | Hacker News Reader

Ask HN: Are links and posts to HN being stolen?

4 pointsjoergrech10 comments

Is it possible that other accounts steal submitted links or posts?

I just had this experience with my paydevs account: * On 2022-10-29T12:43:45 I postet https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=33383563 on my paydevs account, which does not show up in the stream and HN search * On hour later, on 2022-10-29T13:43:02 the user https://news.ycombinator.com/submitted?id=pabs3 published the same link with a different title: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=33383972

Is this normal on HackerNews?

View on HN

I looked at the data and as far as I can tell it was just a coincidence that the other user submitted the same link.

We banned your paydevs account though - it's against HN's rules to use the site primarily for promotion (https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html), and that account was not only doing that, it crossed the line into what the community here considers spamming. That's why your submission of the link was killed.

Thanks for the feedback - that explains the first part, although I'm not sure why asking questions every few days on a topic is promotion or spamming (other accounts post several links per hours).

However, just as I mentioned in a deleted thread started by Tomte, that "somebody else got lucky" would be a very very big coincidence - the project is roughly 3 months old and wasn't mentioned recently. That someone decides - exactly at the same time - to share the link is very strange.

All of your posts with that account were about one thing, which happens to be the same thing your company is selling. That's using questions as a promotional device, not asking questions out of intellectual curiosity. This was obvious enough that users emailed to complain about it.

As for the other submission, I didn't find the slightest indication that the submitter did anything wrong. If you posted your URL to another site, perhaps they saw it there and thought HN might find it interesting? Alternatively, perhaps they had 'showdead' turned on in their profile, saw https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=33383563 and thought it might do better with a different title? There are lots of ways that post could have been made legitimately.

It's also not clear what the alternative hypothesis is - what are they supposed to have done that wasn't legitimate? I looked at a bunch of their submissions and none of the links had been previously submitted to HN, so this isn't happening routinely.

> As for the other submission, I didn't find the slightest indication that the submitter did anything wrong. If you posted your URL to another site, perhaps they saw it there and thought HN might find it interesting? Alternatively, perhaps they had 'showdead' turned on in their profile, saw https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=33383563 and thought it might do better with a different title? There are lots of ways that post could have been made legitimately.

If it is possible to show "dead" posts by anyone who then get "inspired" and re-post them, this could be an explanation. However, the policy of not notifying accounts that they are "banned" but their posts are still posted is a bit odd. What is the reasoning and "long game"? Can an account be un-banned or are the posts only stored and forgotten?

> It's also not clear what the alternative hypothesis is - what are they supposed to have done that wasn't legitimate? I looked at a bunch of their submissions and none of the links had been previously submitted to HN, so this isn't happening routinely.

Well, I assumed that only internal HN staff could hide and view posts, and that looked a bit suspicious - especially if the "hi-jacking" accounts are posting 24/7.

> All of your posts with that account were about one thing, which happens to be the same thing your company is selling. That's using questions as a promotional device, not asking questions out of intellectual curiosity. This was obvious enough that users emailed to complain about it.

Just because I'm interested in a specific topic does not mean that I'm "not asking questions out of intellectual curiosity". I wanted to start discussions about those topics - and if that's not allowed wouldn't that mean that nobody from Google may ask about search algorithms or nobody from YCombinator mask ask about Startups?

I suggest you ask at hn@ycombinator.com

It does seem odd.

Stories on the web aren't your personal property that only you are allowed to submit. Get over it.

The problem is not that someone postet the link - the problem is that the original link/post was hidden and exactly 1 hour later someone else postet it.

That's strange. You can write to hn@ycombinator.com and ask why your submission is [dead]. Maybe it got caught in some spam filter, was unblocked and then somebody else got lucky.

Thanks for the tip. But even then "somebody else got lucky" would be a very very big coincidence - the project is roughly 3 months old and wasn't mentioned recently. That someone decides - exactly at the same time - to share the link is very strange.

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