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Comment by bpatrianakos | Hacker News Reader

If I were paid to write that blog post then that's exactly how I'd want you to see it too. Not being a fan or anti-fan of Jeff Atwood myself I feel, as an objective observer, that if this wasn't an ad then my name isn't Bill. I read this thinking I was going to read about SSDs then I thought it was about USB 3 and then it wasn't long before I was being sold the Blue SuperSoonic Dongle 3000. He mentions it by its full name a bunch of times and does a comparison, albeit indirectly, with other USB drives, and on and on. I work in marketing. I know when I'm being marketed to. Its part of my job to market to others in this really subtle way. I wish I was this good.

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As far as I can tell, he wrote the full name one time. The word "patriot" only appears once as well. Just in case he used that for shorthand, eg "this patriot drive..."

And, yes, since it's a USB 3 drive, it is only natural for one to think "but how much faster is that than USB 2? does it stack up?"

I dunno. I'm not denying there's an affiliate link, but I think you're looking for something that's not there. Jeff gets excited about tech. At the bottom, there are several more posts about SSDs and SSD performance.

Alright Sally, given his history of talking about consumer goods what makes this one stand out as a paid advert? Or if he is just a shill, who paid for the last one where he praised the Nexus 7 and Surface RT, or that one about the automatic cat food feeder?

Gut instinct. It feels like an advertisement and I've yet to come across something that felt like an advertisement that wasn't. What made me think of it was an ad was just the way it was put together. It wasn't like other posts about comsumer electronics. Without even having to analyze it at all it just jumped out as being formulaic.

I'm not saying he's a shill and I couldn't care less if he were. I'm just saying that came off like an ad. And if someone paid for his Nexus 7 and Surface RT posts it would probably have been the people who make or sell those things. How should I know?

If Jeff Atwood was paid to write this I don't give a shit. If he wasn't paid but was asked to write it I still don't give a shit. If the link to the USB stick is an affiliate link then I'd happily click it to get to the purchasing page if I wanted to buy it. None of that stuff bothers me. This isn't an issue of something I take issue with. I'm just saying this comes off as subtle marketing, that's all. When I read Coding Horror I hope to read some interesting stuff, not see an advertisement disguised as a post. But even that's something I don't take much issue with. Its disappointing but I just close the tab, go about my day, and maybe another time there will be a better post.

I could also be wrong. That's fine.

Do you have a similar problem with product reviews?

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