5 ms·

I can't tell if this is too harsh, but it seems like you're praising the contest that was advertised, not the one we got. They didn't fund companies "based pure

I can't tell if this is too harsh, but it seems like you're praising the contest that was advertised, not the one we got. They didn't fund companies "based purely on a pseudonymous-community of 'up' votes." When they realized the community wanted something too risky for them, they bailed, and picked the "winners" themselves.

cperciva 10y ago
Except that's not what was advertised. In fact, the announcement said explicitly that they weren't going to fund companies purely based on voting.
- idlewords 10y ago
  You're being kind of disingenuous. The announcement said that all evaluation would take place in open HN threads, but it didn't.
  - cperciva 10y ago
    You're right, they were more generous than the original announcement suggested. If I had been in Kevin's shoes I would have rejected pinboard based on the content of the thread rather than holding an ad-hoc phone interview to give you a chance to redeem yourself.
tlrobinson 10y ago
It turns out when you let people pseudonymously vote for things you get research vessels named Boaty McBoatface and similar (which I think would be awesome BTW http://mobile.nytimes.com/2016/03/22/world/europe/boaty-mcboatface-what-you-get-when-you-let-the-internet-decide.html http://mobile.nytimes.com/2016/03/22/world/europe/boaty-mcbo... )
- dang 10y ago
  FWIW, that wasn't the issue in this case. We knew about that possibility and planned for it and even called it by that name. But Kevin and I decided not to treat Maciej's application as a troll. The earnest comments he posted were what convinced us of that, and I don't think we were wrong there. I admit to being flummoxed by the combination of trollish and serious elements--it basically does a denial of service on my brain; if it were stage hypnosis I'd be squawking like a chicken. But I'm starting to think one could have taken all the jokes out of this and much the same thing would still have happened. If that's so, then the troll aspect is a red herring.
  - cperciva 10y ago
    I admit to being flummoxed by the combination of trollish and serious elements--it basically does a denial of service on my brain For very good reason: Trolls often pretend to be serious, but serious people pretending to be trolls is incredibly rare.
    - thaumaturgy 10y ago
      You seem to be implying that you think Maciej is a troll. Have you read much of his writing? He is a jester: he tends to couch the things he's serious about in a lot of humor.
    - tptacek 10y ago
      This sounds like something Paul Graham would say. It's only missing the words "it turns out that".
      - skermes 10y ago
        I don't know if it's really that rare, though. From where I sit Maciej is playing the fox/anansi/trickster character to a tee, with a healthy dose of ha ha only serious (http://www.catb.org/~esr/jargon/html/H/ha-ha-only-serious.html http://www.catb.org/~esr/jargon/html/H/ha-ha-only-serious.ht...). Whether it's a character he's pretending to be or just his natural communication style is for him to say, but dude-who-wanders-in-to-fuck-up-your-ego-with-practical-jokes is a pretty well-established archetype that predates "troll".
- rev_bird 10y ago
  I think we agree? When you let "the crowd" make decisions for you, sometimes they make weird, possibly dumb decisions -- that's why "the crowd" doesn't get to do that very often. It's also why I was so impressed by the idea that we'd get to pick these companies to get funded -- if not by literal vote, at least by discussion. THAT was the innovative bit.
- robla 10y ago
  You also get Republican nominees named "Donald Trump". https://medium.com/@ginsudo/president-trump-is-your-fault-e5bbee4f24fb#.l0lmoxboy https://medium.com/@ginsudo/president-trump-is-your-fault-e5...

cperciva 10y ago

Except that's not what was advertised. In fact, the announcement said explicitly that they weren't going to fund companies purely based on voting.

idlewords 10y ago
You're being kind of disingenuous. The announcement said that all evaluation would take place in open HN threads, but it didn't.
- cperciva 10y ago
  You're right, they were more generous than the original announcement suggested. If I had been in Kevin's shoes I would have rejected pinboard based on the content of the thread rather than holding an ad-hoc phone interview to give you a chance to redeem yourself.

tlrobinson 10y ago

It turns out when you let people pseudonymously vote for things you get research vessels named Boaty McBoatface and similar (which I think would be awesome BTW http://mobile.nytimes.com/2016/03/22/world/europe/boaty-mcboatface-what-you-get-when-you-let-the-internet-decide.html http://mobile.nytimes.com/2016/03/22/world/europe/boaty-mcbo... )

dang 10y ago
FWIW, that wasn't the issue in this case. We knew about that possibility and planned for it and even called it by that name. But Kevin and I decided not to treat Maciej's application as a troll. The earnest comments he posted were what convinced us of that, and I don't think we were wrong there. I admit to being flummoxed by the combination of trollish and serious elements--it basically does a denial of service on my brain; if it were stage hypnosis I'd be squawking like a chicken. But I'm starting to think one could have taken all the jokes out of this and much the same thing would still have happened. If that's so, then the troll aspect is a red herring.
- cperciva 10y ago
  I admit to being flummoxed by the combination of trollish and serious elements--it basically does a denial of service on my brain For very good reason: Trolls often pretend to be serious, but serious people pretending to be trolls is incredibly rare.
  - thaumaturgy 10y ago
    You seem to be implying that you think Maciej is a troll. Have you read much of his writing? He is a jester: he tends to couch the things he's serious about in a lot of humor.
  - tptacek 10y ago
    This sounds like something Paul Graham would say. It's only missing the words "it turns out that".
    - skermes 10y ago
      I don't know if it's really that rare, though. From where I sit Maciej is playing the fox/anansi/trickster character to a tee, with a healthy dose of ha ha only serious (http://www.catb.org/~esr/jargon/html/H/ha-ha-only-serious.html http://www.catb.org/~esr/jargon/html/H/ha-ha-only-serious.ht...). Whether it's a character he's pretending to be or just his natural communication style is for him to say, but dude-who-wanders-in-to-fuck-up-your-ego-with-practical-jokes is a pretty well-established archetype that predates "troll".
rev_bird 10y ago
I think we agree? When you let "the crowd" make decisions for you, sometimes they make weird, possibly dumb decisions -- that's why "the crowd" doesn't get to do that very often. It's also why I was so impressed by the idea that we'd get to pick these companies to get funded -- if not by literal vote, at least by discussion. THAT was the innovative bit.
robla 10y ago
You also get Republican nominees named "Donald Trump". https://medium.com/@ginsudo/president-trump-is-your-fault-e5bbee4f24fb#.l0lmoxboy https://medium.com/@ginsudo/president-trump-is-your-fault-e5...