This is all Hacker News posts to me | Hacker News Reader

This is all Hacker News posts to me

21 pointstomasienrbc13 comments

Title: "How Doing This Seemingly Small Thing Increased Traffic/Conversion To My App/Service/Thing/Product/Company By a Billion Percent"

Body: My company, which does this thing but I won't really explain it very well because, let's be honest, who's got the time, was having trouble with (gaining users/conversion) so we did this really unconventional thing. The results? A billion conversions/new users.

How did this work? I know I promised to tell you in the title, BUT I WON'T because the truth is that we got really freakin lucky. Like SUPER lucky. Our product/service/app could have died just as all others have lately in the crowded space we built our product in, but somehow it randomly got some traction when we did this unconventional thing (a good metaphor for getting attention on Hacker News I think) and I want this to seem like it was a genius decision. So I won't tell you how this happened or how to emulate it, even though I promised to, but I will let you know that it happened. I feel really important right now!

Also a lot of "Look at this totally amazing, 100% original, sure to make a gajillion dollars start up I created in 1 minute this morning while brushing my teeth" which leads to a landing page of something that is no where near a "start up", not original and not totally amazing. In 2012, I think "Start up" should join the list of other over-used buzz words that nobody really cares to understand the meaning of but insist on using in every sentence if possible.

You forgot all the self righteous "you're doing it wrong" posts. Usually written by a coder who works for a company that's still in startup mode.

It's also funny to read the "how to ___" from companies that are not yet profitable. I try not to take advice from a VP/CTO who has not yet lead an actual profitable company. And my profitable I mean make more money than it spends - not get bought out and cash out stock.

The "You're doing it wrong" + linkbait profanity formula really drives me up the wall. For example: "You're fucking up your source control", "Stop shitting on your 'ideas guy'", "Marketing Is Not A Fucking Joke. Assssss!"

Everyone takes something different away from HN. I like to look back over my comments and see what items I felt the need to comment on. I rarely comment on these web marketing articles, because I filter them internally. Looking back over my comment history, I find that there are many, many valuable submissions that don't fit this pattern.

I love Hacker News, but this is MORE a response to what gets featured on the Twitter feed. It's either this or, as many others have stated, very conventional "VC gave us a ton of money so we're super special, are you a super special/rockstar/careabouthteuserexperience developer? Work for us dummy" articles.

Ah, I see. I get HN through the RSS feed in Reeder. I'm highly discriminant based on the headline.

What also puts me off when I'm looking through job postings are the ones where startups are hiring but won't talk about what their product or service is. But it has to be super secret because it's going to disrupt everything!

So right

Agreed. I also see this "some company no one's heard of only hiring geniuses/rock stars/talented people"

It's almost implying that all other job postings want to hire idiots.

A title of "startup looking for developer that wants to help us build our company" would be both refreshing and compelling

Anyone who refers to themselves as a "rockstar" should never be hired. Real rock stars get laid by any women they see. It'll be an HR nightmare if what they say is true.

Or a PR dream....if he uses rubbers....

I would like to be clear that I like Hacker News and I like Paul Graham's writing/thinking, but the posts that end up getting featured, especially on the Twitter feed, are starting to make me gag.

By the way, what is the process for getting on the front page? I'll be honst, with 19 points and a few comments I expected this thread to appear on the first or second page, but I can't even find it. Damn I hope Paul Graham isn't mad at me.

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