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It's favorite investment, Zynga, is a notorious ripoff artist and he has supported them before and after it was made apparent that their revenue model was a sca

by fnid2 17y ago

It's favorite investment, Zynga, is a notorious ripoff artist and he has supported them before and after it was made apparent that their revenue model was a scam.

deleted 17y ago
[deleted]
messel 17y ago
They had a small fraction of revenue from a questionable source (scammy sign ups). It was corrected immediately, Mark Pincus is an interesting guy, but I don't think of him as a scam artist. I think of him as a founder who wants to control the destiny of his company through revenue.
- fnid2 17y ago
  I suppose my definition of "corrected" is different from yours. My definition of corrected means making the people you have wronged whole again. They took money from people and kept it and would have continued taking money from people in the same manner if Techcrunch hadn't have been so vocal about the zynga scam. There's a video floating around of Mark Pincus telling a group of startups that it's okay to rip off people as long as you're making money. It's atrocious behavior and I don't believe anything about it is at all acceptable. Until the situation really is corrected, this dude will have no respect from me.
  - messel 17y ago
    There's plenty more information out there about Mr. Pincus. He's not the monster he was made out to be.
ghshephard 17y ago
I think your point here is that this particular blog doesn't do ethical (according to your set of ethics, from my perspective, zynga is at least attempting to clean up their revenue model) analysis of companies prior to making investment recommendations. Honestly, though, ethical investments funds are somewhat of a niche (and I don't think most of them would have a problem with zynga anyways) - whereas most would not invest in tobacco - which in years past has been a favorite holding for Warren Buffet; I don't suppose you are going to besmirch him, are you?
- fnid2 17y ago
  There's a big difference between exchanging money for a product that customers want (cigarettes) and taking money from people who don't know they are giving you money at all and who also receive nothing in exchange.

by fnid2 17y ago

It's favorite investment, Zynga, is a notorious ripoff artist and he has supported them before and after it was made apparent that their revenue model was a scam.

deleted 17y ago

[deleted]

messel 17y ago

They had a small fraction of revenue from a questionable source (scammy sign ups). It was corrected immediately, Mark Pincus is an interesting guy, but I don't think of him as a scam artist. I think of him as a founder who wants to control the destiny of his company through revenue.

fnid2 17y ago
I suppose my definition of "corrected" is different from yours. My definition of corrected means making the people you have wronged whole again. They took money from people and kept it and would have continued taking money from people in the same manner if Techcrunch hadn't have been so vocal about the zynga scam. There's a video floating around of Mark Pincus telling a group of startups that it's okay to rip off people as long as you're making money. It's atrocious behavior and I don't believe anything about it is at all acceptable. Until the situation really is corrected, this dude will have no respect from me.
- messel 17y ago
  There's plenty more information out there about Mr. Pincus. He's not the monster he was made out to be.

ghshephard 17y ago

I think your point here is that this particular blog doesn't do ethical (according to your set of ethics, from my perspective, zynga is at least attempting to clean up their revenue model) analysis of companies prior to making investment recommendations. Honestly, though, ethical investments funds are somewhat of a niche (and I don't think most of them would have a problem with zynga anyways) - whereas most would not invest in tobacco - which in years past has been a favorite holding for Warren Buffet; I don't suppose you are going to besmirch him, are you?

fnid2 17y ago
There's a big difference between exchanging money for a product that customers want (cigarettes) and taking money from people who don't know they are giving you money at all and who also receive nothing in exchange.