
Ask HN: Can we persist hide YC job postings from the same company? - dpres
Frequent job posts by YC companies prioritized on front page:<p>ZeroCater (YC W11) Is Hiring a Full-Stack Engineer in SF - 1 hour ago (https:&#x2F;&#x2F;news.ycombinator.com&#x2F;item?id=21508840)<p>ZeroCater (YC W11) Is Hiring a Full-Stack Engineers in SF - 20 days ago (https:&#x2F;&#x2F;news.ycombinator.com&#x2F;item?id=21318785)<p>ZeroCater (YC W11) Is Hiring a Full-Stack Engineers in SF and in ATX - 32 days ago (https:&#x2F;&#x2F;news.ycombinator.com&#x2F;item?id=21213893)<p>ZeroCater (YC W11) Is Hiring 2 Full-Stack Engineers in SF - 39 days ago (https:&#x2F;&#x2F;news.ycombinator.com&#x2F;item?id=21146429)<p>ZeroCater (YC W11) Is Hiring 2 Full-Stack Engineers in SF - 46 days ago (https:&#x2F;&#x2F;news.ycombinator.com&#x2F;item?id=21080481)<p>ZeroCater (YC W11) Is Hiring Full-Stack Engineers in SF - 54 days ago (https:&#x2F;&#x2F;news.ycombinator.com&#x2F;item?id=21003584)<p>ZeroCater (YC W11) Is Hiring a Director of Engineer in SF - 75 days ago (https:&#x2F;&#x2F;news.ycombinator.com&#x2F;item?id=20822555)<p>ZeroCater (YC W11) Is Hiring Full-Stack Engineers in SF - 89 days ago (https:&#x2F;&#x2F;news.ycombinator.com&#x2F;item?id=20695766)<p>ZeroCater (YC W11) Is Hiring Full-Stack Engineers in SF - 3 months ago (https:&#x2F;&#x2F;news.ycombinator.com&#x2F;item?id=20571209)<p>Would love a setting to turn this off, so new posts from same company are auto hidden.
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dickeytk
As the only form of advertising that HN does—I think this is a totally
acceptable trade-off to being able to use it for free.

~~~
toomuchtodo
Even if someone has decided they have no interest in pursuing a gig at a YC
startup (no complaints personally, great folks, great opportunities for those
interested)? Just prominently advertise
[https://www.workatastartup.com/](https://www.workatastartup.com/) on the HN
homepage instead or give us an option to hide them in our HN profile.

~~~
jamiequint
Yes, because you're using the site for free it's not up to you.

~~~
toomuchtodo
Browser extension it is then (you can detect the job posts, as they have no
discuss ability), although I would love a way to donate to mods so they can go
get a fancy lunch or something like that. I love HN, I think the mods' work is
super valuable, but I block ads in general (while donating cash to non-profits
and paying for news sources I consume), so of course I would want to filter
what I want.

EDIT: I'm apparently entitled because I don't want to see job postings that
I'm not interested in in my news feed. Ce la vie.

~~~
dang
I hear you—the front page only has 30 slots, and those 30 slots are by far the
scarcest resource on HN. To burn one of them on an ad is a pain. Also, don't
forget that we place Launch HN posts on the front page from time to time
([https://news.ycombinator.com/launches](https://news.ycombinator.com/launches)),
especially when YC is in session and with a traffic jam towards each Demo Day.
There have even been two of those plus a job ad on the front page at the same
time, though that's rare—only once, or maybe twice, IIRC.

It's just so reasonable for HN to give back to YC in exchange for funding it,
though, that I don't believe the bulk of the community has a problem with it.
It seems to me, if anything, on the modest side.

Writing code to make the browser drop the job ad and slide #31 up to #30 isn't
hard. The code for HN's 'hide' feature does something similar already. That's
probably your best bet.

~~~
toomuchtodo
I agree entirely. Those who want to see the job ads will see them, those who
don’t will find a way not to, and that’s reasonable for everyone.

I might add: is this the best way for HN to give back to YC, through ad slots?
If so, carry on, it just feels like there might a more optimal way to pair
potential candidates with potential startups (as you’re relying on quite a bit
of luck that the right candidate will be on the front page at the right time
interested in that particular role, job ad decay and all that). Without
context, I’m unable to propose alternative methodologies, so I could be
entirely wrong and these ad slots are objectively the optimal way.

Thanks for the reply, I am not unappreciative of the forum or the work you
folks do.

~~~
tomhoward
> you’re relying on quite a bit of luck that the right candidate will be on
> the front page at the right time interested in that particular role

Often the way job ads get to people is that somebody happens to see an ad and
thinks "that looks like a great job for my [friend|relative|etc]" and passes
it on. So it's a wider net than you perhaps realise.

Also, people actively job-hunting will go to the jobs page to see all active
listings. But having the placement on the front page serves as an ongoing
reminder to people that the job listings exist.

------
wizzwizz4
If you really want to hide it, you could write a CSS rule with the :has
selector. Probably won't be _too_ long 'till that's standardised and
implemented. [https://developer.mozilla.org/en-
US/docs/Web/CSS/:has](https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/CSS/:has)

But, as the only thing really funding Hacker News, I think unobtrusive, easy-
to-identify job ads are a worthy price to pay.

~~~
rapnie
> the only thing really funding Hacker News

Wouldn't YC also get value - maybe enough to fund HN - from analysing usage
data (upvotes, downvotes, link clicks, maybe PII even, etc.), e.g. to perceive
market trends, other topics of interest for services they provide their
startup ecosystem?

~~~
kristianc
> Wouldn't YC also get value - maybe enough to fund HN - from analysing usage
> data (upvotes, downvotes, link clicks, maybe PII even, etc.), e.g. to
> perceive market trends, other topics of interest for services they provide
> their startup ecosystem?

That kind of thing isn’t so popular around here.

~~~
rapnie
You are being ironic, I presume. When near everyone who matters in SV / IT /
tech is a user on your platform, I gather there is something of interest in
the data trail they leave behind.

~~~
kristianc
I mean, that argument could be used for any kind of data exhaust at all - data
mining still has a massively negative reputation, particularly on HN.

~~~
rapnie
Ah. Yes, sure, I very much share that opinion. Its done everywhere
nevertheless.

I don't know the people at YC (other than dang from his comments.. a great
mod) and their moral/ethical stance. But they are in the business of trying to
raise unicorns though, with potential multi-billion valuation.

------
badrequest
The funny thing is, I've noticed these too, and all I come away with is the
impression that nobody wants to work for ZeroCater. I can't imagine that
impression bodes well on recruiting.

~~~
pmiller2
If you have LinkedIn Premium, you can see they've grown from 188 to 248
employees in the past year. Of those, 8 have been engineers. Overall, it looks
like they have about 57 engineers in total now.

~~~
toomuchtodo
How many people have left in that period of time? Churn is a valuable metric.

~~~
pmiller2
It doesn't say, but their average tenure is listed as 1.5 years.

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whalesalad
Alternatively it would be cool if comments could be open on job posts so that
folks who've had experience applying, interviewing or working at the company
can leave notes for others.

~~~
ianai
Cool idea but highly unlikely to go anywhere constructive. Lots of anon
accounts at the least.

I’d like it, but it’s doubtful.

------
dang
The job ads are already staggered so that a company's ad can't appear on the
front page until it has fallen off
[https://news.ycombinator.com/jobs](https://news.ycombinator.com/jobs). That's
why you're seeing a week or two elapse between any of those posts.

------
redmattred
Not sure why YC would build a feature to limit the audience of their job
postings on a platform they own and operate

~~~
jacquesc
You could argue that it might even increase the audience if specific users can
hide companies they won't be working at and as a result they'd see more job
postings from other places.

~~~
redmattred
Fair point

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itronitron
I think a lot of companies post job openings as a form of advertising. I'm not
saying that is what is happening here, but there always seems to be a set of
companies that have the same positions listed for over a year, despite being
relatively small companies.

~~~
JMTQp8lwXL
When I see a position that's been open for awhile (one company has popped up
here on and off for what feels like ~2 years), it seems to raise a red flag.
If you can't fill the position, something is off.

~~~
hamandcheese
Growth stage startups, as well as any engineering org above a certain size (a
few hundred maybe?) are perpetually hiring.

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the_watcher
There's a "hide" button on every post on HN, including job posts.

~~~
thrower123
It's extra helpful on the 1st of every month. There seems to be more and more
varieties of the "Who's X-ing?" posts every month.

The hide button is a great way to unobtrusively clear out stuff you don't care
about. One of the best features.

~~~
dang
I'm glad you like it. I was going to remove it at one point, but a two-
initialed founder of this site who shall remain nameless protested strongly
against that idea.

~~~
dickeytk
One thing: I push that an flag on my phone on accident all the time. Have you
guys thought about a way to maybe hide it better?

