rumpelstiltskin
Joined 17 years ago
Karma
768
Submissions
188
Member since
Apr 30
Recent submissions
Comment · 14 years ago
Comment · 15 years ago
You're welcome. I did a little more digging and wwwDOTpatscowindshieldrepairDOTcom is a mirror site with the same info that's ranking for the same terms, and the backlink profile for this site also shows lots of paid backlinks.
Comment · 15 years ago
Here's a search that tripped me up -
I'm in Houston, TX. When I searched for 'windshield repair houston', the 1st result - wwwDOThoustonwindshieldrepairDOTnet - looked promising so I made an appointment with them to get my windshield repaired. When I went to their place of business, it was just a guy in a pickup truck in the parking lot of a strip mall, with a 'windshield repair' sign on the back of the truck.
Turns out he's running a scam where he gets ppl to file claims with their insurance, and when they pay him, he would kickback 50% to the customer. Having insurance pay for damages is common enough, plenty of businesses do it. But this guy was trying to get me to file claims for damages that I didn't even have. When I asked for a cash price just to repair the damage I did have, he refused saying that 'it wasn't enough money'.
I was pissed. Not only is this illegal, I couldn't believe he was ranked #1. When I did some digging, it turns out the guy is gaming google with a ton of paid backlinks. For example, http://www.searchpicks.com/business/automotive/patsco-windsh... (click 'suggest listing' for the price).
I'm sure plenty of other searchers ended up wasting their time with this SERP just like I did.
Comment · 15 years ago
He's not saying Guy is wrong. He's saying you're gonna have to come up with a more cogent argument than "He was right back then, and he's still right today". Basically, the burden of proof is on you since you made the original claim.
Comment · 15 years ago
My only concern is that Stripe will be such a hit that they'll be bought out by someone like Paypal. Which would suck since the point was to move away from Paypal to Stripe.
Comment · 15 years ago
Actually, the math is not simple. Why are you assuming all 100 employees will donate $10? What if only 5 out of the 100 donate $10? In which case, the company donating $10 for every employee it has, regardless of whether they donated or not, will result in a higher amount.
Save the mock exasperation for elsewhere.
P.S. I agree with your 'Secondly,...' point.
Comment · 15 years ago
Sites can definitely be blacklisted (Valleywag, for ex). There's nothing in the HN FAQ about how to go about submitting a site for blacklisting though.
For the record, I'm all for blacklisting daringfireball.
Comment · 15 years ago
Ahh I see. Well, either way, best of luck at Twilio for now, and a startup in the future :)
And this is called talking out of one's ass. It's easy to armchair quarterback from a cozy cubicle at Pando HQ. When you run an actual company, especially as a solo founder, you'll realize how thin your bandwidth gets stretched. Unless it's core, you adopt a 'cross that bridge when you get there' mentality. Which is exactly what Apoorva did here.
Seriously, once you go down the 'due diligence' road, there are a million things to check up on. Focus on the core to get up and running, fix things as they break and worry about the rest later.