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Comment by onedev | Hacker News Reader

So I think there is a key takeaway for the RapGenius guys here, and it has nothing to do with Google, SEO, or their tactics.

The lesson to be learned here is that if they continue to intentionally behave in a childish manner like they have been (in interviews, emails, etc), it puts off a lot of people; a lot of the tech community. I'm seeing a lot of comments here which seem to put a lot of weight into their image (which is perceived to be negative) and that then affects people's opinions about whether they support or don't support RapGenius in this matter.

In short; quit being douchebags, it's not helping your case, your site, or your relationship with the community. All publicity is not good publicity.

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All publicity is not good publicity.

Nope. Companies being in the news at all for any non-person-harming event is good. It's like display advertising to reinforce name recognition.

The name of the company is "rapgenius." They have a huge ambition, but they don't see how limited they are. Example: There's a radio station in Atlanta whose tagline is "All the hits, with none of the rap." (read: "none of that black music") They aren't a general purpose site. They are a rowdy manipulative bunch who are being stochastically abrasive in the hopes of finding a large enough group of people to like them.

Call it Lean Marketing: be loud and insulting as often as possible until you find enough of an exploitable niche where you fit in. (Turns out their first exploitable niche of "annotated rap lyrics" wasn't nearly big enough. They need more rubes to exploit now.)

I agree that these guys are huge tools. Sad thing is the majority of their uses probably don't fall within the tech community, so their negative image within tech won't really hurt them. Most people who use their site won't ever know who the founders are. The VC's backing them don't care if they are insufferable, they just want that money. Traffic = money, if they can generate the traffic, they get funding.

"Son do you know why I'm stopping you fo?"

Cause I'm young and I'm black and my hat's real low

Do I look like a mind reader sir, I don't know

Am I under arrest or should I guess some mo?

http://rapgenius.com/Jay-z-99-problems-lyrics

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