Airbnb (YC W09): The Rise of the One-Room Hotel

Re:Airbnb (YC W09): The Rise of the One-Room Hotel by robg on Saturday November 13, 2010 @01:54PM (#1901384)

Dear esteemed HN Editor,

Why add the YC branding to the title? If anything, the branding adds a weird reason to read the article. Without, it's simply an interesting idea in which a YC company is winning. I like the latter much better.

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Re:Airbnb (YC W09): The Rise of the One-Room Hotel by pg on Saturday November 13, 2010 @02:34PM (#1901479)

It's the default, which means the question is not when to add it, but when not to, and it's too much work to decide not to in a few cases where it might seem wrong for some subtle reason.

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Re:Airbnb (YC W09): The Rise of the One-Room Hotel by robg on Saturday November 13, 2010 @02:54PM (#1901530)

Seems like that default oversteps the need for editors. It's not adding clarity. It's pimping information for promotion, not genuine interest.

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Re:Airbnb (YC W09): The Rise of the One-Room Hotel by pg on Saturday November 13, 2010 @03:26PM (#1901621)

The default derives from the site's origins as a place for YC alumni to exchange links. HN is in effect like an alumni magazine that has gotten a broader readership.

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Re:Airbnb (YC W09): The Rise of the One-Room Hotel by robg on Saturday November 13, 2010 @03:37PM (#1901655)

I've never seen it referenced as such. Is that what you'd prefer it to be?

Rather than a default editorial action, why not simply ask the community to put the YC info in the title?

Like I said, it changes the interest for me. I'm less likely to read marketing. I could be in the minority even in this case as a happy Airbnb user.

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Re:Airbnb (YC W09): The Rise of the One-Room Hotel by pg on Saturday November 13, 2010 @04:16PM (#1901734)

Often the people who submit links do put the YC info in titles. But it wouldn't work to make it a rule that one had to, because a lot of submitters wouldn't know what batch a given startup was in.

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Re:Airbnb (YC W09): The Rise of the One-Room Hotel by robg on Saturday November 13, 2010 @04:34PM (#1901770)

That always seemed strange to me - a blend of advertising and ingratiation. I guess the difference here is I didn't think editors were responsible. Surely though the editors don't catch all YC references? If that's your desire, I'm sure many in the community would be interested in helping, even if the session year has to be corrected/added.

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Re:Airbnb (YC W09): The Rise of the One-Room Hotel by riffer on Saturday November 13, 2010 @06:31PM (#1901985)

Surely though the editors don't catch all YC references?

The YC alums are the editors, that's why some things end up dead and others don't

a blend of advertising and ingratiation

HN is YC marketing, it didn't really start out as an alumni magazine either, but once they realized that they could use it to, you know, sell ...

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Re:Airbnb (YC W09): The Rise of the One-Room Hotel by c2 on Saturday November 13, 2010 @03:10PM (#1901579)

Don't forget one of the side functions of hacker news is advertising for YC. There's a reason hacker news is news.ycombinator.com and not it's own separate domain.

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Re:Airbnb (YC W09): The Rise of the One-Room Hotel by pg on Saturday November 13, 2010 @03:39PM (#1901662)

Actually we originally intended to put the site at startupnews.com (when it was called Startup News), but the guy who controlled the name wouldn't let us have it. That turned out to be very fortunate, because if the site had been at startupnews.com it would have been much harder to change the focus.

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Re:Airbnb (YC W09): The Rise of the One-Room Hotel by jackowayed on Saturday November 13, 2010 @05:44PM (#1901901)

You've had really good luck with people refusing to give you names.

(Viaweb was originally called Webgen, but another business was already using that name (and had the trademark, I think). They offered the other Webgen something absurd like 5% of the company to let them keep using that name. They said no, so they changed to Viaweb. I think Viaweb is a better name, and it almost certainly wouldn't have made them 5% more successful if they had been called Webgen.)

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Re:Airbnb (YC W09): The Rise of the One-Room Hotel by pg on Saturday November 13, 2010 @07:01PM (#1902036)

Yes. More generally it's remarkable how often not getting something you wanted turns out to be for the better. Perhaps because improving your situation often also constrains your options, and we undervalue lack of constraint because we underestimate how much things could change in the future (or how mistaken we could be now).

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Re:Airbnb (YC W09): The Rise of the One-Room Hotel by jamesteow on Saturday November 13, 2010 @11:47PM (#1902557)

I think of it as providing more options. When one doesn't get what they want, they are usually forced to look into other different options, which subsequently provides alternate futures that they possibly never predicted because they were so set on a future dependent on the 'something' that wasn't acquired.

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Re:Airbnb (YC W09): The Rise of the One-Room Hotel by robg on Saturday November 13, 2010 @03:48PM (#1901680)

Organic advertising seems more genuine, and powerful, than simple branding. I'm happy to provide the advertising if there is an interesting phenomenon in which X is an instance. But I wouldn't post something simply to advertise.

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