I appreciate that AirGradient has open source products, but the company repeatedly posting its own content here is starting to feel increasingly spammy.
Air quality is a hot topic here so the posts often succeed, but why does this product hold so much sway with this community? Genuine question.
Most companies self-promoting their own “we’re better than X competitor” content are not so well received. Am I missing some context/history, or are people just really happy with their AirGradient gear?
Achim Founder of AirGradient here. Yes, I'm curious about this too.
Could you clarify what exactly in this post you think is spammy?
We do try to write interesting and informative blog posts and also highlight important aspects that are not that generally known. Like in this article the data ownership issue of the AirThings.
In fact as part of our open-source philosophy we also see our responsibility creating awareness and informing about these things.
Why shouldn't we then try and distribute these posts to for example hacker news?
The posts only get traction if people like the content and upvote it. What's wrong with that?
> Could you clarify what exactly in this post you think is spammy?
In just the last 12 months, you’ve submitted your own domain 26 times. When you’re not submitting your own domain, you’re almost universally submitting content about your product.
Self promotion is directly addressed in the site guidelines.
> Please don't use HN primarily for promotion. It's ok to post your own stuff part of the time, but the primary use of the site should be for curiosity.
While I think some of the content is actually good, my reaction is to the fact that it has increasingly felt like pure self promotion, and the data backs that up.
> The posts only get traction if people like the content and upvote it. What's wrong with that?
See above. But for me, I’m just sharing how I feel after seeing these posts repeatedly. I’m tired of them to a degree that I felt compelled to comment about guidelines, which is something I generally try to avoid.
If it was an organically hot topic getting submitted by dozens of different people, I’d accept it as the current buzz in the zeitgeist and move on. Because it’s all coming from one account, it feels engineered, and yes, spammy. The quality of your content isn’t enough to excuse the behavior, and the behavior is now one of the lenses through which I’m seeing your product.
Air quality is a hot topic here so the posts often succeed, but why does this product hold so much sway with this community? Genuine question.
Most companies self-promoting their own “we’re better than X competitor” content are not so well received. Am I missing some context/history, or are people just really happy with their AirGradient gear?