How to Hack the Radar Community

spokentwice · October 12, 2015, 3:23pm

Though Radar is still in its infancy, it offers a good opportunity to share your idea and views with the startup/technology ecosystem in Nigeria (or Africa as @lordbanks and @seyitaylor are hoping for: according to the Radar bio).

Recently, because of its adoption, it might be getting a little slow to get your post to the homepage of Radar. So, here are top 10 things to do to hack your post to the front page that it deserves AND keep the engagement going

Let the title of your post be controversial enough to spark discussion. Make it easy for people to take side by polarizing their opinions. A good example is
a. Uber Killing our startup story
b. Linda Ikeji Linda Ikeji stories here and here
After your post is published, go back and comment on it and @mention people’s name: For example mention people by user IDs e.g
@spokentwice
@
@

This hack actually got me into trouble with @lordbanks (The Chief “Radarian”) since he considered it a black hat method of bumping my post to the homepage. While I did it innocently, it is yours to exploit.

3… Before you post on Radar, inform a handful of your friends to comment within 10 minutes of your post going live to automatically bring it to the home page. This way you will get the engagement going early enough.

4… Comment often on your posts, be a troll and mention people. This should be easy enough to follow. But watch out, as you will DEFINITELY be banned like @Ozombo

5… Get any of the Radar warlords to weigh in on your post; folks like @Xolubi, @PapaOlabode etc. make the discussion thick and indicate a signal that the post is worth talking about. That’s’ why you see a Cabal beside their names and the rest of us are called: Dummy, - I guess

6… Make your new post to be a ‘Reply” to another popular topic. This is likely going to notify participants of the existing thread of your new post

7… Everyone wants to weigh-in in the same direction with a “public figure”. Never take the wrong side on an issue with a celeb except you want some posts deleted (…later). Case in point here

8… This list is supposed to be 10……. go figure that out……and add what works for you…. at your risks

rebuttal to No. 4

Radar has a cool little feature (see the image below) to help you turn off the activities of troll. By default, it is set to Tracking. Turn it to Muted

PapaOlabode · October 12, 2015, 3:51pm

Lol @ warlord. I’m definitely not one! Good tips in all and maybe your mention strategy is indeed working. In any case, in respect of the ‘Cabal’, I must say I have absolutely no affiliation to the TC guys…but radar is great as it fills a void by providing a platform which hopefully we can disseminate ideas and interact.

P.S. If there’s a warlord…it’s definitely @xolubi as IMO he provides the most value by consistently sharing good insights & comments to discussions.

Ubarab · October 12, 2015, 3:52pm

And I guess you posted this to hack it to the front page as well.

Well, let me start from the apex point in your method for hacking your post to the homepage:

Question first: was there any post here that never made it to the front page? Ehhhmmm, just asking.

Uber Killing Our Local Startups: is it really controversial?

Referencing your second point: do you know I never made a single comment on ‘Uber Killing Our Local Startups’? But then, I was still the most active monitor in the Radar’s record breaking post. Though I did appreciate every participant. I read every post and it was so awesome. We have gurus here. @OoTheNigerian really got me thinking somewhere.

Thirdly, please why not say we should also inform all our Facebook friends, LinkedIn connections, and Twitter followers because Radar is the new way to start self-promotion?

Fourthly, @xolubi, @ozombo and so many great minds here are my good friends. I can’t recall if I ever thought of them when posting the Uber thing. Maybe, next time before I drop a new post, I’ll solicit for your counselling.

From your sixth point: mind you, I only used the ‘reply to another post’ feature only today(12/10/2015) when trying to help a friend sought out a data plan issue. Before today, I never knew how it works.

From the last list:
Radar is not the new way to start self-promotion. It’s just a better way to express our feelings about happening in tech. industry, a place we seek for opinions (career, business etc.) because here is full of ‘geeks’.

The real thing is, appear real and you’ll get your issue(s) resolved. Your post does not necessarily needs to go viral here before we term it a success. Once you are able to get a solution from your post (even if it’s just a single comment), then it is a success.

xolubi · October 12, 2015, 3:57pm

I won’t agree with commenting with people’s usernames though, just like @lordbanks didn’t. Why not just mention them on the original post like you did with this one? And for those who want to be stealth, there’s an invite button beneath every post.

Don’t be a troll. If you have an opinion, roll with it and defend it until it stops being defendable. Riling up people for the sake of it will only leave everyone angry. You may think you have “hacked” radar, but your persona instead is what’s being hacked.

princehumphrey · October 12, 2015, 4:00pm

@Xolubi, @PapaOlabode got baited to test his hypothesis of getting warlords to comment on posts.

princehumphrey · October 12, 2015, 4:07pm

This is not a ‘hack’ but more like an attempt to stir up stuff which i think very petty and not many will be happy with this ‘stunt’

spokentwice · October 12, 2015, 4:20pm

You are perfectly right on @xolubi insights.

Tola · October 12, 2015, 5:51pm

That’s not true. You cant game what appears on the front page. This is because the homepage is based on the Latest Tab - Latest: All topics, in order of last activity. - This means that your post will automatically appear on the front page and only bumped out if there is no activity. So lets say your 10 friends comments and no one else comments, its on it way out of the front page. Also there is grace period before the post appears in the latest nav to allow you do some editing if needed.

funmi · October 12, 2015, 6:02pm

Why would you want to ‘hack’ radar though? Aren’t you supposed to have ‘genuine’ questions/issues, raise them, and answers will come if anyone in the house has any?
Popularity contest?

Obi_Ik · October 12, 2015, 6:52pm

What you have just posted here describes spamming, and it’s not allowed here.

Obviously you do not know the purpose of this forum.

xolubi · October 12, 2015, 7:48pm

@funmi I guess after reading books on growth hacking and sales hacking, it’s the new cool ‘act’.

chaibizi · October 13, 2015, 2:41pm

“Radarian”… @lordbanks won’t you do a caveat post to stop this nomenclature before it goes viral?

spokentwice · October 14, 2015, 12:33pm

Congratulations bro. King of Radar

This is should be classified as an experiment - but i am NOT even done yet @Ubarab

spokentwice · October 14, 2015, 12:40pm

From what I checked out, i have not disobeyed any rules of the forum; including its latest update . … BUT it looks to me that opinions for a second review are pouring: noting what @theboss expressed in that link. @Obi_Ik, I guess you are seconding the motion for a review. Right?

Ubarab · October 14, 2015, 12:56pm

[quote=“spokentwice, post:13, topic:2739”]
King of Radar
[/quote] Am I? Don’t think so because my dictionary says ‘a king is a person or thing regarded as the finest or most important in its sphere or group’ Do we really have finest or most important here?
Well I think everyone is a king in his own sphere of life. So, you’re king @spokentwice too!

spokentwice · October 14, 2015, 1:07pm

King @spokentwice

spokentwice · October 14, 2015, 1:36pm

Dear @princehumphrey do you know that you just used two of the principles of this hack:

You mentioned the names of 2 powerful cabals by “@” mentioning them
Replied twice to the same thread instead of editing previous post.

Multiple comments (when you can have one) is like…

#H(ij)acking the thread

Explain yourself sir?

princehumphrey · October 14, 2015, 2:50pm

No explanation required and none volunteered.

There is no point starting this thread anyway. What’s the point of posting “How to Hack the Radar Community” on Radar? What you are trying to achieve is lost on me to be honest except it is a deliberate attempt to stir the Radar pot.

Well there you go - my brief explanation

spokentwice · October 14, 2015, 4:23pm

Thanks for the brief explanation. (even when none was intended)

spokentwice · October 15, 2015, 9:05am

A little explanation:
A few years back Quora, HackerNews, PrductHunt started. And they all provided an opportunity for experts, like the Cabals (Radarians) we have here to discuss. However, like in every society, some come with more “social power or resources” than the other. Maybe, they have been more successful in their space or having chosen to be on Radar 24/7 commenting.

But you are NEITHER.

With time, the society segments and there are new rulers. Here we call them Cabal, while most of you are not. Their posts get the most engagements while yours don’t. it is called Digital segregation (Don’t take me serious on the term, though)

If we rewind back to day Zero of this community, the founders would have created multiple accounts to seed it with their own questions and in turn answer them (This was what Quora guys did: not sure if this was done here)

But with traction, there is not enough room to be on the HOMEPAGE - And I guess your opinions deserve that homepage attention. So, it is just like the Search engines; how do you game SEO to be on the front page of Google?

I put on my thinking cap for the non-Cabal status Radarians and began this experiment which i hope does not make me get banned in addition to reducing my chances of becoming a CABAL (moderator) to Zero

While this is NOT me in real life, I believe this is the kind of engagements that Radar can facilitate.

I will continue my explanations…

Hope @chaibizi will not take offence with my continuing use of Radarians?

UPDATE:
To validate human actions (which is applicable to Radar), i spotted a conversation about one esteemed member of the community. And everybody wanted to weigh in.

Who is @Tola ?
Who is @iaboyeji?

I have updated the original list to include a point that this scenario reveals

Just wondering