I really wish they'd enable comments on those. It feels like we're not trusted to comment responsibly regarding jobs for YC companies. In most cases, there'd be no reason to leave a comment, except to ask about details of the job that might be of general interest, which seems like a legit thing to do.
First, those comment threads were often toxic; for instance, they tended to host deliberate and pointed efforts to unmask companies that hadn't launched yet.
Second, I think it's totally reasonable for YC to provide HN perks to YC companies, and if that's going to happen, I prefer the overt perks to the more subtle ones.
Third, public comment threads are a crappy venue for having conversations about a job. If you want to know more about a job, contact the person who posted the ad. If the ad sucks, let them write better ad copy.
Finally, for the HN demographic, these are some of the best job advertisements on the entire market. They're a clear win-win.
It is possible that I have hired more people directly off HN than any non-YC company, and probable that I've hired more people from here than most YC companies have. I don't feel like I'm getting a raw deal at all. I'm perturbed by the degree of entitlement on display on this thread.
> I'm perturbed by the degree of entitlement on display on this thread.
I'm fine with those postings, what with it being PG's site and all, so that's not really what I'm talking about. I just think the postings would be better with comments for the same reason everything else is. They can have bright purple headings to make them more visible to everyone for all I care, if some method to make them stick out is desired.
I don't recall those threads being nasty, but perhaps that's been crowded out of my head by the two or three things in my life more important than a particular variety of posting on HN. I think nastiness should be rooted out in a fairly blunt way: if people are being lame/immature about companies' job postings, they're likely going to be lame about other stuff as well.
#2 is something we're in agreement on.
> public comment threads are a crappy venue for having conversations about a job.
Yes and no. I think there are some kinds of questions and answers that might be useful to all applicants, and I think most people here are smart enough to figure out the difference between what ought to be public, and what is best addressed to the company in question via private email. For many of these companies, it may be the first time they've ever sought to hire someone, so it's entirely reasonable that they don't nail the posting 100%. A helpful comment or two might also help the companies.
Jobs never had comments. They're not ordinary items like stories and comments; they just get displayed similarly on the frontpage. You may be thinking of times when people posted jobs as ordinary posts.
When YC cos did that it was by mistake. A job listing submitted as if it were a story would not end up on the jobs page. We're now careful about telling everyone to submit jobs as jobs.
