On: How AirBnB Became a Billion Dollar Company

[rvanniekerk]

Good read, although, I wouldn't necessarily consider advertising your services to people already listing vacation rentals as "blackhat".

Blackhat insinuates that someone is being gamed, in this case, both the home owners and AirBnB are benefiting (maybe craigslist is losing out?).

[helium → rvanniekerk]

Of course it's blackhat. They're sending unsolicited, automated spam to people who explicitly stated that they didn't want emails regarding commercial interests. There is a big difference between advertising and spam.

[pbreit → helium]

"explicitly stated" = "did not change the default"

[jasonwatkinspdx → pbreit]

You still have to respect opt out, even if it's the default.

[qeorge → rvanniekerk]

I think it counts as "blackhat", but I'm not really outraged. To me, its equivalent to cruising the singles section of Craigslist and responding as a sock puppet recommending a particular dating site. Not a huge deal, but its not 100% above board either.

[smackfu → rvanniekerk]

"Advertising your services" via faked emails is pretty black hat.