[flagged]
To be clear, that's fine! This is definitely interesting content, and companies with genuinely interesting things to share should share them directly, that's great. I can't speak for the wikipedia behaviour, but I think complaining about this post is unreasonable.
As for whether or not this is fine: yes, it's fine. "Show HN: We reached a new RF distance record with LoRa" from an account associated with the company.
It's a link to a blog on the company site, linked by someone whose profile clearly discloses they're CEO of the company. (though based on comments below, the disclosure in profile might be an hour more recent than the post itself).
Personally, I find this interesting, on-topic, and (after the profile edit, if any) totally fine.
It's obvious to me because (1) I'm aware of the company, (2) know that there have been issues with their WP entries in the past (and still are, they are essentially marketing copy), and finally (3) because it just so happens that the company is Dutch and I keep an eye on the local eco-system. But it probably wasn't that obvious to you.
These guys have nice tech, but they are working the web in a way that doesn't sit right with me. If you're ok with this then no problem, let's see how you feel when HN and WP are overrun by advertising that masquerades as organic postings.
I follow TTN (and Helium), have a TTN gateway plugged in, and a dozen or so LoRa dev boards sitting around (two are within reach, albeit buried under some dust of recent disuse).
I find the LoRa tech interesting in general and a new RF distance record specifically interesting, whether it's on the TTN blog, the Helium site, on an Andreas Spiess video, or elsewhere. It sounds like you have some relevant history with the company's behavior that is shaping your opinion of their action here. We perceive their action here differently as a result.
Similar stuff is happening on Wikipedia, read the talk page there (and the LoRa page) to see what I'm getting at.
Why not just flag and move on.
People don't need to disclose who they are when submitting things to HN.
Hell, I used to have a pretty comprehensive bio, until I replaced it with an icloud relay email because random internet people would look me up outside HN and try to dig up stuff to use as ammo in response to comments I posted that they disagreed with.
HN can be a nasty place. I don't fault anyone for hiding their identity.
Companies aren't people. That's one of those things I just don't subscribe to. If you are the CEO of a company and you are engaging in what can only be termed as marketing activities, effectively advertising your company I think you should be up front about that. Otherwise you can no longer see the difference between organic interest in a technology and marketing push, which are two entirely different things.
I would agree with you if it was a garbage press release with low quality fake comments.
Maybe there’s some niche politics that I’m unaware of in the LoRa space that is triggering.
And maybe I'm over protective of HN.
> I would agree with you if it was a garbage press release with low quality fake comments.
You mean like the one where the CEO (then still anonymously) tried to devalue a point made by a commenter here:
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37416457
> Maybe there’s some niche politics that I’m unaware of in the LoRa space that is triggering.
Not that I'm aware of, but their WP talk page is pretty clear about them abusing WP for marketing purposes and that doesn't give them the benefit of the doubt with me when interacting with HN in this way, besides that the initial votes were so fast that I doubt that it was organic. But when dang wakes up I'm sure he'll be able to rule that out or confirm it. For all I know it is all legit but it certainly looked weird. Also note how the CTO nicely disclosed who he was but the CEO did not well after joining the thread until prompted to do so. Which makes me suspect this is a bit more organized than it may seem at first glance, but then again, that's not my call to make.
It's well possible that this was really an innocent accident, but it would have looked better if something like this engagement post was posted by the same account as the original link.
I agree that it would be better if they were up front with their affiliation, but hiding it (astroturfing) is not the same as not divulging.
But the original name for that is EME for Earth-Moon-Earth. Radio amateurs have been doing this for decades, it's a fun thing to try.