What is "new" is that this is now getting a lot of exposure in the non-tech press, which it wasn't before. Techcrunch is relatively niche compared to FT, and hacker news is even more niche.

What this means for AirBnb is that for a great many readers of FT, if they haven't heard of AirBnB before, will have an opinion that the service is inherently unsafe (even if this is the 0.001% story). And once someone makes up their opinion on a product or service, it is very hard to make them change

I don't know what you mean by It's not exactly a tech publication. but this is not exactly a tech problem, this is a general business problem.

OK seriously, why did you feel the need to create a fake account to post that from?

Just to be clear to all the posters here, yes this is a throw away. I made this throw away because that is how I use HN. I had a good account a few months back called rick_2047[1] (yes that guy!). After that one got hell banned (my second or third hell ban I think) I have observed that I digress from most of the HN community on the meaning of the term "trolling". No biggie HN people, thats just a different point of view. No hard feelings (but I still would like that account back or at least have it purged)[2]. I don't have a strong urge to post comments these days (that is a con) but I am less of a karma whore now (thats a pro). Most of the articles here were and still are very irrelevant to me. I am not doing any startups so don't need all that knowledge and am not into CS so don't read those articles as well. But every once in a while something interesting and generic (as generic as it gets on HN) comes up and I feel the urge to comment. PG made it really easy to make a new account. I chose a few words relevant the comment and then post it. I check the thread for a day or two (because they are not active after that, also I usually don't post very interesting stuff). I read the guidelines and all. I didn't find any clause stating that one cannot have multiple accounts. If I have missed something please do tell me. But even after that I know I will keep doing this, but at least I know I am doing something illegal.

[1]http://news.ycombinator.com/user?id=rick_2047 (I think I made kind of a record with this one, of the most unpopular comment of all time, still would like conformation on that)

[2] If PG is reading this, which he most probably isn't, if you can be so kind and purge my account that would be great. Thanks in advance.

I don't get it - couldn't it just be the first time (s)he has commented? I originally made my account in order to post my first reply to something.

Note the name chosen, and the second and third words that (s)he quoted.

I'd just assume that they needed to create an account to comment and picked the first username that came to mind. Quite logically, this was a couple of words from the reply that they had already formulated in their mind.

Maybe it's the start of a reddit like novelty account. There sure are a lot of "not exactly" situations on HN. Could make a karma mint on any patent thread.

Wow, now I wish I'd thought of having a notexactly account.

Maybe I'll have to settle for yesbut

You may have this one (if you can live with a throwaway). I have posted my original account in a comment above. It has my email ID in it. Email me and I will give you the password. Before that I will make a comment here stating that I have transfered the account and will wait till the delete option is gone. Seems fair?

Is it still called a "mint" if it's all downvotes?

Don't new users show up as green?

> (below the fold)

web 1.0 term now in disuse. As soon as a story, any story, is disseminated by a world renown publication such as the Financial Times, it might as well be the main story for the amount of time the long tail decides to keep it alive.

It's a business problem; the tech part to AirBnB was just the application. Developers should get used to the fact that their apps grow up, move away and marry business people.

Point taken, but 'below the fold' is most assuredly not a web 1.0 term when we're talking about a printed publication.

In today's terms, a printed publication is entirely below the fold.