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Comment by xandrius | Hacker News Reader

To me this sounds like an ad.

The original question was the perfect setup for an ad, more or less asking “have you ever done this before?”, “What should I be concerned about?”, and “How do I even start this?”. This response may seem ads-y, but it also answers the questions and provides interesting original thoughts (e.g., to start with a cost/benefit analysis). Even if it’s an ad, imo it’s a useful one

I saw a presentation on e-commerce back in the 90s, and this was an astroturfing strategy that was pitched even back then. Don't post a thread about your company, post a question on one account, and then on another account post that your company is the answer. Really it's a strategy that's been around for a lot longer than the internet.

Not saying that this is astroturfing, just that this format has been around forever.

Ya, if it’s two accounts controlled by the same person I agree it’s disingenuous. I think (hope?) that’s not the case here though

Yeah, I mean the easy to spot ones are usually the first ever post on a few days old account. Actually…

For the record, I have no connection to the original poster, and I’m not in the business of doing this anymore. I wanted to respond because I didn’t see any other threads pushing the OP to think about the basic economics and do some basic fermi estimations of the business case.

Yeah, ad like, but he is not wrong.

$5m is a solid number to ballpark any new initiative from scratch.

I get that but the suggestion would work even without dropping any company name.

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