BranchOut Falsifies Wall Street Journal Quote

http://socialsplat.net/2012/08/31/branchout-falsifies-wall-street-journal-quote/

by robbiet480 • 14 years ago

141 69 14 years ago

socialsplat.net

mjcohenw• 14 years ago

It's only fair.

raintrees2• 14 years ago

As a side not, thanks to the article, I now know I use Oxford/serial commas.

bpatrianakos3• 14 years ago

I've used the Oxford comma since high school when my favorite English teacher introduced me to them. At the time I didn't know they had a name. I found out they were called Oxford commas about five days ago when watching an episode of Boss on Starz. Since looking it up then I suddenly come across the term a lot now which is weird because I had never heard that term before.

_pius2• 14 years ago

Since looking it up then I suddenly come across the term a lot now which is weird because I had never heard that term before.

Baader-Meinhof Phenomenon. :)

sgentle2• 14 years ago

Apparently quite common among hackers. I remember reading a section about it in ESR's Jargon File ages back that had a great explanation:

  Consider, for example, a sentence in a vi tutorial that looks like this:

  Then delete a line from the file by typing “dd”.

  Standard usage would make this

  Then delete a line from the file by typing “dd.”

  but that would be very bad — because the reader would be prone to type the string
  d-d-dot, and it happens that in vi(1), dot repeats the last command accepted. The
  net result would be to delete two lines!

http://catb.org/jargon/html/writing-style.html

lmm• 14 years ago

Um, that quoting style is indeed common among hackers, but it has nothing to do with the Oxford comma.

mrj• 14 years ago

The phrase you're looking for appears to be "logical punctuation."

http://www.slate.com/articles/life/the_good_word/2011/05/the...

JoshTriplett• 14 years ago

"Falsifies" seems like an odd choice of words here; I went to the article expecting that the Wall Street Journal made some statement that BranchOut managed to disprove, not that BranchOut faked a quote from the Wall Street Journal.

tmurray• 14 years ago

"falsify" means "to forge or alter as to deceive," not disprove.

_pius2• 14 years ago

Though I didn't find this confusing in context, it actually means both.

(cf. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Falsifiability)

opminion• 14 years ago

In philosophy of science, when discussing what makes a good hypothesis, it is used as disprove.

As in: the existence of the Spaghetti Monster cannot be falsified, and thus to believe in it is an act of faith.

http://www.stephenjaygould.org/ctrl/popper_falsification.htm...

Bill_Dimm• 14 years ago

Regardless, "fabricates" would be a lot clearer.

staunch• 14 years ago

Sure seems like that's the case.

  No results found for site:wsj.com "create secure professional profiles".

Tried a few other substrings from the quote -- none matched.

uncoder0• 14 years ago

Did the same search. Wow. This is pretty scummy; I had thought they were bad but, not this bad. I already was not too fond of them due to the number of requests to join their service I receive on Facebook.

danielweber• 14 years ago

Is the WSJ fully indexed by Google? I thought they hid lots of stuff behind the paywall.

(Not saying the quote isn't manufactured, but that a Google search isn't a good test.)

sp332• 14 years ago

The paywall has holes punched in it for Google to index the site. Often (not always, depending on cookies) going to an article from a Google search will get you the full text of even paywalled articles.

patmcguire• 14 years ago

Nothing's hidden behind the paywall - Google can see everything. The general strategy for paywall sites is to let Google index everything and let a person's first visit to the site from Google bypass it as well. That way the paywall stays up, Google indexes their site, and they don't get in trouble for showing different things to the Googlebot than everyone else.

jval• 14 years ago

#hustle2win - how many more of these are on startup websites?

bpatrianakos3• 14 years ago

I've done it and I've seen it done by others. When I did it I banked on people ignoring the heading above it which reads "Never yet featured on" then some prominent logos below it. Here: https://writeapp.me at the bottom of the page. I was trying to be tongue-in-cheek but it can easily be misconstrued. It looks like BranchOut really does want to mislead in a more sinister way.

mehulkar2• 14 years ago

If I wasn't looking for it, I would have missed the "Never Yet Featured On". The list of feature articles is so recognizable now, I don't really pay attention to the details in the panel anymore.

therealarmen• 14 years ago

I always find it a little fishy when startups put glowing quotes from news outlets without linking back to the original article. It takes minimal effort on their part and it's generally better to read the quote in context anyway. This only reinforces my suspicions.

smalter• 14 years ago

I know many startups don't link back to the original article because they don't want to drive traffic away from their site. It's not for any particularly nefarious reason at all. When people see a link, they'll click on it, and they often won't find their way back.

rokhayakebe• 14 years ago

target=_blank

adgar2• 14 years ago

If your startup can't handle the outgoing traffic from your testimonials, it reflects a tremendous degree of insecurity.

What's more troubling is that you assert that startups - in general - can't handle that outgoing traffic.

cpeterso• 14 years ago

So where did the quote come from? Was the text from a BranchOut press release that happened to be syndicated in Wall Street Journal? For example, the quote shows up in a press release on yahoo.com in a format that resembles a news article:

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/branchout-raises-25-million-su...

socialsplat3• 14 years ago

I considered the syndication possibility. If that's the case, BranchOut may excuse themselves with a bit of "Well technically, it was in the Wall Street Journal..." However, I think that sort of excuse doesn't do much for one's integrity in these circles. It might do as much for their image as saying "The five stars are just a divider for the text" might.

pmarca• 14 years ago

It's straight out of their own press release boilerplate!

jmathai• 14 years ago

Waiting for them to come out with an announcement that it was an oversight on their part and it's been removed from their site.

tadfisher• 14 years ago

You won't have to - the plastic back can be folded in half and won't break.

eru• 14 years ago

You speak in riddles, Sir.

DuskStar2• 14 years ago

Site down for anyone else? Using Google's cached copy... Gotta love the Hacker News effect

diego• 14 years ago

The "Hacker News Effect" is really not that bad. A modest Linux server runing WordPress with WP Super Cache can easily handle the traffic.

DuskStar2• 14 years ago

Still- it was down for about 15 minutes (at least with my checks on downforeveryoneorjustme) Probably not the most productive of comments, on second thought.

socialsplat3• 14 years ago

Hmm... I've never run into this trouble before, but then again I've never really generated traffic, either. I switched WordPress over to a more lightweight theme for the time being, but is there anything else I might do on the non-server-side of things to make this work?

nugget• 14 years ago

Anyone who works with these clowns knows they are full of crap. Facebook spam != real users.

notlisted• 14 years ago

You sound surprised? BranchOut is based on milking the LinkedIn social graph using FB as a viral spam host.

http://www.switched.com/2011/01/11/branchout-helps-you-land-...

They took a nice page out of the FB playbook, ie import as much data from your competitors before they cut you off. I've never understood why LinkedIn gave them access to the API to begin with.

http://techcrunch.com/2011/07/01/linkedin-cuts-off-api-acces...

Now, is there anyone here who fell for their spammy messages and actually USES BranchOut?

mehulkar2• 14 years ago

I don't understand how they got 25m users to begin with. I they they made me a profile one click after a friend invited me. So I guess I do understand how they got 25m users...

MaysonL• 14 years ago

I wouldn't be surprised if that 25m user claim is as true as the WSJ one.

twelvechairs• 14 years ago

Its (sadly) quite common for news organizations to copy verbatim parts of a press release as part of an article. Not to say BranchOut aren't being dishonest here, but I wouldn't be surprised if this 'quote' was actually printed in the Wall Street Journal in some form or other - probably in some filler article like 'top 10 web startups' or somesuch...

bicknergseng5• 14 years ago

Meanwhile... presidential candidates falsify just about everything else. Ironic double standard?

fleitz• 14 years ago

There's no joke about how to tell when a startup CEO is lying, there is however a joke about politicians.

Seriously though, president is probably the least important job in america. I bet America would be just fine without a president for the next 100 years. Why you elect presidents based on things like 'likability' and 'electability' is because it's a very unimportant job, that just about anyone can do.

Probably why America doesn't elect very many highly trained people to do the job. Community organizers, peanut farmers, coke addicts, philanderers, actors, etc.

bicknergseng5• 14 years ago

I'm curious... why would America be fine with no president for 100 years, but a bad CEO means a company goes under?

I'm seriously having a hard time finding a lot of logic in your response. And I'm not joking. I find it incredibly hypocritical that our society just accepts political trash.

bicknergseng5• 14 years ago

Why does this get downvoted so hard? It's a proven fact that both parties lie through their teeth. I understand HN isn't a political platform, but this is a serious subject relating to business as well as politics. If you're going to downvote, provide a counter argument.

EvilTerran• 14 years ago

http://ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html

"Off-Topic: Most stories about politics...

...

Please avoid introducing classic flamewar topics unless you have something genuinely new to say about them.

...

Resist complaining about being downmodded. It never does any good, and it makes boring reading."

robertsonai• 14 years ago

B/c this is not a thread on politics..

stephenhandley• 14 years ago

Gamification 4evr

mischov• 14 years ago

"But it wasn’t until I noticed that Oxford comma that it all suddenly became very clear. That’s not right. That couldn’t be the Wall Street Journal." (From OP)

Does anybody know why an Oxford comma would be a signal that the quote isn't from the WSJ?

I've always found that using an oxford comma ("red, black, and blue" instead of "red, black and blue") is just common sense.

Separation by comma is a concrete indication that the items on the list are separated, which is useful in situations where the last two items could mean something different if not separated ("black and blue" has it's own special connotations, whereas "black, and blue" doesn't).

sabraham• 14 years ago

Typically newspapers omit the comma; my guess is to save ink/space, but if anyone knows for sure, I'm all ears.

tedunangst• 14 years ago

Wsj has a style guide, which presumably says no Oxford commas.

gee_totes• 14 years ago

When you read a comma in writing, there is a pause in the flow of the sentence, like there would be in speech. Overusing commas can distract from the point you are trying to make.

I find the Oxford comma is completely unnecessary. If you find yourself in a situation where you feel a common turn of phrase (like black and blue) necessitates the addition of a comma, try switching around the items in the list (i.e. 'black, red and blue' vs. 'red, black and blue'). Less commas == more flow.

PS. I am only posting my 2 cents because you misused "it's" in your last parenthetical.

NeilRShah• 14 years ago

Unnecessarily snarky :) You've just opened up your entire "comments" section to attack by the grammar police. Be warned...

ljd• 14 years ago

From Wikipedia:

"Opinions vary among writers and editors on the usage or avoidance of the serial comma. In American English, the serial comma is standard usage in non-journalistic writing that follows the Chicago Manual of Style. Journalists, however, usually follow the AP Stylebook, which advises against it."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Serial_comma

BranchOut Falsifies Wall Street Journal Quote

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