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Comment by edent | Hacker News Reader

Hullo,

Author here. I don't think Republicans are dumb - but I'm not convinced I'd want to invest in a company run by Bush http://edition.cnn.com/ALLPOLITICS/stories/1999/05/13/presid...

On to your main point. Sentiment analysis is still imprecise - but seeing as the majority of my (news) links go to The Guardian or Independent, and none go to tabloids - it's not a stretch to say I'm unlikey to visit a News International title.

I've never (knowingly) Tweeted or otherwise interacted with The Sun.

That's one example out of many. At one point, I was sent targetted tweets about attending a conference in the USA - I live in the UK.

If they were blindly targeted, it wouldn't feel so offensive.

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What on earth does Bush running a company have to do with your article about twitter's advertising practices?

This is the laziest form of writing I can think of and it makes you look juvenile. I have trouble taking anything you say seriously after that sort of nonsense, and I'd suspect that a big chunk of your readers are the same.

Okay, you didn't tweet the sun, but you linked to a picture of somebody else who did. I'm sorry I don't know who you are well enough to recognize that handle as not yours.

This is a serious question: how would twitter know what you're interested in? It's not a computational linguistics engine, it's a datastore. Explain to me how you would draw these connections if you had access to all of twitters data.

May I politely suggest you read the article. I am suggesting that Twitter is being run by MBAs and that (some) MBAs are as useless as French Windows on a submarine.

I don't know where you get the impression that I linked to someone who did tweet The Sun. I linked to a screenshot I had taken.

Finally, Twitter is selling itself to advertisers as knowing about its users. If it doesn't, it better get to some of the fancier universities around the world and snap up the computational linguistic majors.

Yes, clearly because I disagree with your premise I haven't read your article. Somehow I magically knew what it was about enough to engage you in a conversation...about an article I didn't read.

>I am suggesting that Twitter is being run by MBAs and that (some) MBAs are [...] useless

Then say that. The pointless jab is just that: pointless.

>it better get to some of the fancier universities around the world and snap up the computational linguistic majors.

Is this a joke?

Just as "(some) MBAs are as useless as French Windows on a submarine", so are (some) programmers, and (some) doctors, and (some) <insert profession here>. Did you think that bashing on people with an MBA degree was going to lend credibility to your opinion?

If anything, we're just glancing over the dumbness of the point you were making, because when you get past the Bush thing, what's left is a jab at MBA's and a weird equivalence being drawn between MBA's and advertising business models.

What do MBA's even have to do with this situation? Dick Costolo isn't an MBA; he's a UMich CS grad. He's been running tech startups since I was in high school.

Can I clarify this once again:

You feel offensive, because Twitters' data analysis isn't sophisticated enough to understand your personal interests well enough?

I want to give you my heart felt apologies. I am one of these people responsible, who try their very best to sabotage these profiling systems and putting effort into creating distortion and unrelated data. I hope you can wait a little longer for that day, your when all the ads shown to you are echo-chambering your believe set and reaffirming any (political) biases you have.

It's an interesting double-edged sword. On the one hand, I don't want to see adverts for dog food (not owning a dog), on the other hand, I don't (necessarily) want a company to know that I have a cat.

If a company is going to do advertising - they should do it well.

I'm not sure if you're British, but rejecting The Sun doesn't mean I reject their political viewpoint - it means I reject their sexist, homophobic, lying, and (allegedly) criminal actions.

>If a company is going to do advertising - they should do it well.

You seem convinced that this ad being targeted to you was some massive failure of Twitter's ad product. I am not sure that is the case.

Premium Twitter advertisers (of which the Sun is surely one) have a variety of targeting options that could explain why you saw this ad.

The Sun may have simply targeted all accounts in the UK. Or, they may have targeted accounts that follow other UK publication accounts (it looks like you follow a few Guardian accounts for example).

It is clear that you didn't want to be targeted by The Sun, but that doesn't mean that The Sun didn't want to target you.

Actually it's not interesting; your perspective is merely another instance of the perfect being the enemy of the good. Reasonable minds will differ on the value of a particular perfection/good decision, but it's no sword of innovation.

You're joking right? It's a Sun newspaper, a shitty sensationalist tabloid rag in every country. Other newspapers rely on journalism, they find tits and anger will suffice.

You might as well argue that those who think the Daily Mail is stupid are suppressing free speech and re-enforcing their echo chamber. You would look like just as much of an idiot as you do now.

I find it absolutely ludicrous, that people want to enforce their own value judgment on media, and what they are allowed to report on and on what not.

Nobody forces them to buy the Sun - never the less over two million people buy the paper every day. Are you seriously arguing that a paper that 10% of Britain reads every day should be banned from advertising on Twitter, just because you disagree on their reporting style?

Living in a free society means that you have to tolerate different opinions to your own. Sure, if they break certain laws, go and prosecute them.

People arguing on issues like these based on their personal views are in my opinion no better to these who want to ban porn from the internet, because it their personal value judgment says it is wrong.

> I find it absolutely ludicrous, that people want to enforce their own value judgment on media, and what they are allowed to report on and on what not.

I find it hilarious that you consider what the Sun does to be reporting. Like those hard-hitting journalists at the Weekly World News. How dare I tarnish their sparkling reputation with my disparaging of their highly regarded journalism style.

> Are you seriously arguing that a paper that 10% of Britain reads every day should be banned from advertising on Twitter, just because you disagree on their reporting style?

No, I'm arguing they're an indefensible tabloid rag so aligning yourself with them is risky. Nobody is discussing "banning" except you. I would prefer Twitter doesn't accept their advertising dollars and if I see a Sun ad in any of my clients I'm quitting too.

The number of people who read their idiotic rag is neither here nor there. If you're seriously suggesting that at the very least 10% of any group isn't comprised of borderline retards, then you're delusional.

Using my eyeballs and wallet to vote isn't "banning", it's exactly what I'm supposed to do. Vocalize my concerns, try to get a response, and if they're not receptive, take my business elsewhere.

> You would look like just as much of an idiot as you do now.

Please try to refrain from ad hominem attacks as it doesn't help in proving your point.

http://ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html

  When disagreeing, please reply to the argument instead of calling names. E.g. "That is an idiotic thing to say; 1 + 1 is 2, not 3" can be shortened to "1 + 1 is 2, not 3."

This is true, but...

I'm sorry, if someone tries to argue that the Jersey Shore or Bad Girls Club is quality television, if they try to argue that Katy Perry makes amazing original music, that McDonalds is fine cuisine, or if they claim the Sun does real reporting, I'm going to call them an idiot.

Even if it affects my argument negatively, it has to be said. I'm not just going to let that stand because it's an opinion. It's a painfully ignorant opinion, stemming from the "muddy the waters" argument that has become so popular.

At one point, I was sent targetted tweets about attending a conference in the USA - I live in the UK.

So? I live in Sweden, yet I've attended conferences all over Europe and in Canada. A couple of years ago my girlfriend was in South Africa for a conference. We have these things called airplanes which makes that sort of this quite convenient. If there's an interesting conference in the US then why wouldn't I want to hear about it?

Did you just quote yourself?

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