4 ms·

I noticed that the company is glossed as "Flock" and not "Flock Safety (YC S17)" in posts like this and last week's "US cities are axing Flock Safety surveillan

I noticed that the company is glossed as "Flock" and not "Flock Safety (YC S17)" in posts like this and last week's "US cities are axing Flock Safety surveillance technology", https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47689237 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47689237. Did YC house style change a while back to drop the "(YC xxx)" annotation since so many popular firms particpate / or because it's well known?

mikey_p 5mo ago
Who know, maybe they're trying to distance themselves from the privacy disaster, but I doubt anyone at YC or HN is smart enough to read the room on Flock.
- bix6 5mo ago
  Which room? The one paying them millions to spy on people? Cash Rules Everything Around Me.
tptacek 5mo ago
I see less of it now across the board but note that this headline was almost certainly created by the story's submitter; it's not like there's an automated process to apply the label.
- FinnKuhn 5mo ago
  There are definitely some automatic formatting rules for titles though. E.g. capitalization or one that removes any "How" from the beginning of a title. When I wanted to submit "How Pizza Tycoon simulated traffic on a 25 MHz CPU" I had to edit it after posting or it would have said "Pizza Tycoon simulated traffic on a 25 MHz CPU", which doesn't make any sense.
  - lionkor 5mo ago
    How does that not make any sense? It turns into a statement. If it no longer makes sense, the original title was bad clickbait, no?
    - FinnKuhn 5mo ago
      Titles should be descriptive and in this example the blog is doing a deep dive into how the tech actually works. So the content isn't about that "Pizza Tycoon simulated traffic on a 25 MHz CPU", but about how it did so. As far as I can tell this is supposed to catch "How to" titles, where it totally makes sense though. I guess there is an exception to every rule though.
946789987649 5mo ago
Likely the person didn't know they were part of YC (I didn't).

mikey_p 5mo ago

Who know, maybe they're trying to distance themselves from the privacy disaster, but I doubt anyone at YC or HN is smart enough to read the room on Flock.

bix6 5mo ago
Which room? The one paying them millions to spy on people? Cash Rules Everything Around Me.

tptacek 5mo ago

I see less of it now across the board but note that this headline was almost certainly created by the story's submitter; it's not like there's an automated process to apply the label.

FinnKuhn 5mo ago
There are definitely some automatic formatting rules for titles though. E.g. capitalization or one that removes any "How" from the beginning of a title. When I wanted to submit "How Pizza Tycoon simulated traffic on a 25 MHz CPU" I had to edit it after posting or it would have said "Pizza Tycoon simulated traffic on a 25 MHz CPU", which doesn't make any sense.
- lionkor 5mo ago
  How does that not make any sense? It turns into a statement. If it no longer makes sense, the original title was bad clickbait, no?
  - FinnKuhn 5mo ago
    Titles should be descriptive and in this example the blog is doing a deep dive into how the tech actually works. So the content isn't about that "Pizza Tycoon simulated traffic on a 25 MHz CPU", but about how it did so. As far as I can tell this is supposed to catch "How to" titles, where it totally makes sense though. I guess there is an exception to every rule though.

946789987649 5mo ago

Likely the person didn't know they were part of YC (I didn't).