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Comment by lapcat | Hacker News Reader

This submission violates the HN guidelines: "Please don't use HN primarily for promotion. It's ok to post your own stuff part of the time, but the primary use of the site should be for curiosity." https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html

The https://news.ycombinator.com/user?id=jarekceborski account was created 1 day ago, the only submission is this one https://news.ycombinator.com/user?id=jarekceborski and the only comments are on this submission https://news.ycombinator.com/threads?id=jarekceborski

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I’d give the OP the benefit of doubt. I’ve always read that rule as discouraging excessive self-promotion, not a ban on one-off ones, and I think that should apply even when that one-off happens to be the very first submission by the account in question.

I'm not saying that the account should be banned, or that self-promotion should never be allowed. Nonetheless, the account creation date and lack of other comments clearly shows that it was created for the purpose of selling the submitter's product. I think it's fair to flag this submission dead and then see what else the person does with their account, if anything.

Not entirely sure why you're getting downvoted. One might disagree with the guidelines but since they clearly say that it's ok to post your work "part of the time", an account created only to post personal content is clrealy going against the spirit of the guidelines.

Do I personally care? No. Am I bothered by the submission? Also no.

Still, downvoting you doesn't seem all that fair since you do raise a valid point.

Also from those exact same guidelines: “Please don't post insinuations about astroturfing, shilling, brigading, foreign agents, and the like. It degrades discussion and is usually mistaken. If you're worried about abuse, email hn@ycombinator.com and we'll look at the data.”

> Please don't post insinuations about astroturfing, shilling, brigading, foreign agents, and the like. It degrades discussion and is usually mistaken.

It's not an insinuation. The submission author literally said: "I'm Jarek, and I've built this tool". It's an undeniable fact that the submitter is self-promoting. There's no mistake.

The submitter's profile also shows irrefutably that the HN account has never been used for anything except self-promotion.

Another problem is that it's not clear the submission is even on topic for Show HN. Is there anything that HN users can try? It just seems to be a "Buy" page. https://news.ycombinator.com/showhn.html

N=1 is not a trend. We don't know if the submitter has other active accounts that aren't in their real name. If they are new to this site, can we be more welcoming? This is cool content and made the front page.

> N=1 is not a trend.

Every spammer is N=1.

> We don't know if the submitter has other active accounts that aren't in their real name.

That would be yet another HN guidelines violation: "Throwaway accounts are ok for sensitive information, but please don't create accounts routinely." https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html

> If they are new to this site, can we be more welcoming?

Would you say the same to all spammers?

> This is cool content and made the front page.

There are a lot of cool paid products in the world. You're giving permission for everyone to just post their own "Buy" page here. That's not what HN is for. I'm a software developer myself, and while I have submitted some of my technical blog posts, I've never just submitted my product marketing pages.

And as I said in another comment, this shouldn't even be a "Show HN" post: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=36959608

Every spammer is not N=1. The user could submit their marketing page repeatedly. They could submit it from multiple accounts. That hasn't happened here, there's no need for outrage.

https://news.ycombinator.com/from?site=localcan.com

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