“We posted on Hacker News – and messed up.” (We're sorry)

“We posted on Hacker News – and messed up.” (We're sorry)(blog.riddle.com)

8 points by mikehawkins 10 years ago | 4 comments

gus_massa 10 years ago |

> It is common practice to give yourself a few upvotes in the early minutes after a post so we did. [...] Then however, we made a rookie mistake.

Perhaps it's useful in other sites, but each site has it's own uses and customs. I'll quote partially a few comments from dang (read the complete version in the links):

* Sockpuppet votes and comments aren't allowed on HN. [...]— it's bad for HN and gets accounts flagged and/or banned. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9672368

* We ban sites for repeated sockpuppet voting. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9834751

* Votes and comments for promotional reasons are against HN's rules and tend to get accounts and sites banned. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9853578

minimaxir 10 years ago |

> It is common practice to give yourself a few upvotes in the early minutes after a post so we did.

No it's not. And it doesn't even work.

I would have flagged it if I saw that submission in the Top 5 on the front page due to suspected manipulation.

deckar01 10 years ago | |

Well, from past experience, the difference between my posts drifting into oblivion with one point and actually gaining traction is soliciting upvotes through social channels. Not sure about you, but I think most people are more likely to click a post in the new section if it has 2 or 3 points.

A random button would help with post discovery.

mikehawkins 10 years ago | |

Yup - this has really been a humbling learning experience for us... shame as well, because we ended up missing out on the sort of feedback HN community often provides.