Dear Unknown Spammer,

With the hype around 'March Madness,' you're probably tempted to come here and fill our ears with inane babble, or make irrelevant lol-ish comments in hopes we'll pity zap you, or just ChatGPT your way to victory. But look, I care about you, so I want to help you get out of this phase in your life. I know you wouldn't be looking for “easy money” if things were going great, so don't waste your time trying to game SN.

SN looks like a normal website—right?SN looks like a normal website—right?

In form and function, sure. It's to newsgroups and forums of the past, and its developer himself likens it to Reddit. Reminds me of the RPG forums I used to post on as a kid. All well and good… but this isn’t Reddit, son.

Stacker News is a microcosm of the new cybereconomy, which, it should go without saying but maybe to you it does not, is bitcoin only. And you’re failing here because you’re importing your bad Instagram comment section habits (from the fiat internet) into an economic model that isn't backwards compatible with you.

How so?

1. You’re being charged in the most perfect store of energy ever devised just to post here. Even your ChatGPT fueled run-a-thon sentences are costing you.
2. That low effort post? It clearly took very little work or thought to produce, making it truly worth-less. Everyone here decides their own pricing mechanism, so how much to zap (or not) is solely up to them. You might not get 0—someone might give you a 5-sat pity zap sometimes—but you're incurring a massive opportunity cost in a deflationary, absolutely scarce “asset” that you will feel for years. “Congratulations, your 20 sats are up 100%!”

Don't do that. SN Is a value-for-value environment, but those are just words. It's trickier than that. To find out what that really means, let's peruse some of the site’s top posts…

https://i.gyazo.com/e7995d8e252034d13aed9dc60562d41c.png

And what we see here is an extremely diverse group. Just selecting a small sample:

• @DarthCoin, one of the most popular guys here, known for his infamous “toxicity” discussing the value of kindness. 👀
• @davidw basically beat United Nations country profiles at their own game by creating a comprehensive fact sheet about Uruguay. This isn’t even (directly) related to bitcoin! 😳
• One of the highest zapranked posts of all time was a BTCer ( @btc_remnant 👋) talking about his disillusionment over adoption and the dangers of larping / excess optimism.

Serious Question: Can you game a data set like this?Serious Question: Can you game a data set like this?

Is there an algorithm that can let you program up some posts to rake in the sats in 60 seconds? You see, little spammer, how basically human it all is? Anti-robot? Spammer resilient?

Bitcoiners zapped the shit out of Uruguay because the cowboys are respectable, the meat 🥩 looks amazing , and davidw put time and effort (work) into making a great post.

Simple as. ✌️

That's cute that you're looking for easy money here, but...That's cute that you're looking for easy money here, but...

It doesn't exist anymore. You're chasing a mirage, and you always have been. Bitcoin enforces work.

There’s also this top post to consider…

• @Undisciplined observing that he made more sats on SN by zapping more (hm 🧐).

Ever see ‘A Beautiful Mind?’ It’s worth remembering that its protagonist, John Nash, was a real mathematician and economist theorist who authored a whole paper on ideal money.

Something from the movie for you to chew on:

John Nash: Adam Smith said the best result comes from everyone in the group doing what's best for himself. Right? That's what he said, right?
Hansen: Right.
John Nash: Incomplete. Incomplete, okay? Because the best result will come from everyone in the group doing what's best for himself and the group.

Now, being a spammer is no kind of life, friend. You're better than this. Find what you're good at, and apply it, and we'll zap you.

p.s. Some shitposting is permissible—we grew up on the internet, after all—but don't overdo it. 👌