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Seriously, this level of attention doesn't seem to be rational anymore. The guy is trying to build a business that creates jobs, and hes putting some of his ow

Seriously, this level of attention doesn't seem to be rational anymore. The guy is trying to build a business that creates jobs, and hes putting some of his own capital on the line to do it. Thats the most important point here - he's making jobs. The guy isnt selling blood diamonds or anything, at worst he's gaming a search engine. Sure, he's using some wikipedia content to run some tests. But, haven't the same people on here also run tests on their businesses - maybe incomplete features, bugs, overselling, trying to keep up. Thats all part of building something from nothing. Give him a break - he's trying to create more jobs, but hes from a position where doesn't have to bother.

lotides 17y ago
You're making him sound like a saint. He's not trying to make jobs, he's trying to make money. He'll do it any way necessary. He's a businessman through-and-through. Whether you think that's a bad thing or not is up to you but don't pretend like his intentions are philanthropic.
ericd 17y ago
Creating jobs by doing a bad thing to a large number of others is not a net social good. There are plenty of other problems that good software engineers should be working on, rather than spamming up the internet for the benefit of a company that will ultimately funnel a decent percentage of its generated wealth to a professional troll. If it ever gets to the point where Calacanis gets a big exit, business magazine/blog articles will be written about him and how successful he was and detailing some of what he did to generate that wealth, and some future entrepreneurs will see that, look up to him, and say "Hm, that doesn't sound so hard, I can do that too", and then go off and make their own spam sites for fun and profit. It's really lose, lose, win (for Calacanis) if we let him get away with that, and as disproportionate internet users, we're the ones that will be hurt the most by search engines becoming more spammy. No break for Mahalo, please. If Google dropped them and all the other MFA sites, that would be better than 5 Christmases.
- shareme 17y ago
  he will not get the big exit, have you reviewed the long term stats using quantcast of mahalo.com? Currently he has to revise and update the feature set to create boom bust cycles in visitor upswings..and yet long term they only amount to a few percentage points in growth..

lotides 17y ago

You're making him sound like a saint. He's not trying to make jobs, he's trying to make money. He'll do it any way necessary. He's a businessman through-and-through. Whether you think that's a bad thing or not is up to you but don't pretend like his intentions are philanthropic.

ericd 17y ago

Creating jobs by doing a bad thing to a large number of others is not a net social good. There are plenty of other problems that good software engineers should be working on, rather than spamming up the internet for the benefit of a company that will ultimately funnel a decent percentage of its generated wealth to a professional troll. If it ever gets to the point where Calacanis gets a big exit, business magazine/blog articles will be written about him and how successful he was and detailing some of what he did to generate that wealth, and some future entrepreneurs will see that, look up to him, and say "Hm, that doesn't sound so hard, I can do that too", and then go off and make their own spam sites for fun and profit. It's really lose, lose, win (for Calacanis) if we let him get away with that, and as disproportionate internet users, we're the ones that will be hurt the most by search engines becoming more spammy. No break for Mahalo, please. If Google dropped them and all the other MFA sites, that would be better than 5 Christmases.

shareme 17y ago
he will not get the big exit, have you reviewed the long term stats using quantcast of mahalo.com? Currently he has to revise and update the feature set to create boom bust cycles in visitor upswings..and yet long term they only amount to a few percentage points in growth..