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Comment by untog | Hacker News Reader

Arrogance, I don't care about. The shameless corruption, I do. PandoDaily, in particular, is funded by VC firms that also fund tech startups. They're basically buying coverage for their investments- it's taking the system that got Arrington fired and putting it on steroids. It works out great for the investment company, it works out great for their companies, the only person it doesn't work out for is that actual reader of the blog. It's why I will never read a PandoDaily article.

As a slightly more on-topic aside- an app I made was recently featured in the NY Daily News. The results were great- I got some useful feedback from real users, rather than hypothetical users more interested in gossip.

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  PandoDaily, in particular, is funded by VC firms that also fund tech startups.
  They're basically buying coverage for their investments

I would like to point out that HackerNews is run by a VC firm and YC alumni effectively get free coverage here.

But everyone gets free coverage hear. Not to mention great feedback. We don't have to ask anyone to submit ShowHN articles.

Yep, and that's one effect that I call "community myopia". This is a very wide spread phenomenon and it can be seen in almost every online community: members of a community have problems looking back at the support of their community and criticize it.

But the difference is that HN content is posted by any random user. It is not employing a staff of self righteous, egotistical reporters to post crap about YC firms.

The content on HN is more honest, if you will...

Except for the administratively front-paged YC ads.

Except for the easily distinguishable front-paged YC ads.

Disclosure matters. Everyone knows what is going on here.

Any coverage YC alum get is by us upvoting them, though.

Not the job postings, as far as I can tell.

Posts from TC/Pando/Anyone affiliated with either shouldn't be allowed on Hacker News. There has not been a single post from either site that is of any use to us here.

They are biased. They are cry babies. They want attention. Stop giving it to them. TC & Pando stories should be banned from HN.

Add.: Maybe it's my introverted nature, but it really seems that this industry is heading to a place where if you aren't a complete arrogant ass without shame who can strut around going "Look at me I'm so cool! Look what I do!", your project won't get any mainstream attention. It makes me sad.

That's not going to happen, because those sites are useful to YC companies.

Then there needs to be an alternative. Anything Arrington, Lacy, etc. are affiliated with will be plagued with corruption, terrible writers, and self-important nonsense.

There doesn't need to be an alternative if what we have now is effective for YC companies. This isn't a moral issue. You might have an easier time finding an alternative to HN.

Useful for one thing but pollution for another.

Oh, I agree with you that it makes HN worse.

it really seems that this industry is heading to a place where if you aren't a complete arrogant ass without shame who can strut around going "Look at me I'm so cool! Look what I do!", your project won't get any mainstream attention. It makes me sad.

I don't think that's "this industry", I think it's "every industry". And I'm not sure it's a new thing, either.

It also doesn't work out for anyone working at tech startups that aren't funded by the VCs behind PandoDaily. That is the reason this is a Bad Thing, not "the reader is being poorly informed".

I think it depends on perspective. If you are working for a tech startup, it's The Reason. If you a reader, it's not. I figure there are a lot more readers than there are startup employees.

Disagree. If it's "bad" to provide incomplete or one-sided content to a reader, then we ought to get rid of 99% of the internet.

Ask yourself this - if PandoDaily remained exactly as it was but financial backers weren't VCs then how damaging would it be? Not very. Just another crap blog in a sea of crap blogs, hurting no one.

Nice point. Essentially these blogs serve as (indirectly) paid news with out the heading 'paid news'.

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