Some specific responses

@Tet
“Anyone in a position to publish information about the company to prospective employees is rarely in a position to see the real company culture.”
This is really great point. I think that below a certain size, probably the size at which individuals can still influence the entirety of a companies culture, it is still possible, but at larger companies it’s a matter of expressing a group or department’s sub culture.

@Amazed
Perhaps I should clarify, paying people anything other than a fair and equitable salary is completely counter productive. That said, as a London based tech company, we will never be able to compete with the rates available contracting from an investment bank. So it’s a matter of preference. If money is the sole driver at the expense of job satisfaction then a curated job board makes no sense since the value of the company can be neatly expressed as a number. If, on the other hand interesting work in a challenging, open and engineering driven environment is a key selling point then some level of curation makes good sense.

@ Eddie Van Helsing
Perhaps some sort of XKCD inspired ‘read back your comments out loud before you post’ might have helped here? We do agree on one point though and that’s the use of the term ‘resource’ to describe people, in fact I wrote a post on this very subject just a few weeks ago.

Look here. I’ve been in the software development trade and I think I know how this works by now. If you hire me, you’re going to try to get as much out of me as you can. If you can get me to work 50 hours a week instead of 40, you will. If you can get an occasional Saturday out of me, you will. If you can get me to accept a mediocre salary, you will. As far as you’re concerned, I’m not a man, but a resource. Men command respect. Resources get exploited.

You’re going to use me up if you can, and then throw me aside to make room for another sucker who will work for a shittier salary than you offered me because he’s younger and isn’t cynical enough to realize that he’s being led to slaughter.

So don’t ask about trust. Don’t you fucking dare. You haven’t earned the right to expect trust out of me, or out of any other developer. We’re mercenaries by necessity, because loyalty to an employer is a sucker’s game.

And boy, I hate PR-babbling that tells you nothing.

I also really like the idea a commentator pointed out. Community and Open Source.
A company blog that gives insights and general advises gives you so much information, as an applier.
One that really stands out is the blog of Assembla. I am following their blog for some time now, because they post great blog posts about distributed development and much more. That way I not only came to get to know that company and, even more importantly, follow them, I get to know how they work and that they really know what they’re doing. If you can get people to follow your company for informative blog posts you made it. That is THE way to go IMO.