3 ms·

sorry about the lack of spelling or grammer [sic]. i'm an acquired [dis-]taste...

shadowsun7 17y ago
Hi Dave, Your comments on HN are clear, simply written, and to-the-point. When you defend your arguments here, you make perfect sense. I'm not sure why you write the way you do on your blog. Could it be that you're just looking for attention/linkbait? Please, stop. You're famous enough in startup circles to be able to run on the strength of your ideas alone. I think people here are beginning to realize that - once we parse through your language we'll find some fantastic ideas. There are many more people who can't/won't get past the parsing (for instance, while I like your ideas, you're not in my feedreader). There's no reason not to write simply, and clearly, the way you write on HN now. Right?
- davemc500hats 17y ago
  thanks for the kind words. (i think?) but really... i'm not trying to write for fame & fortune, i'm just having fun. (ok, yeah i'm pretty sure it's also somewhat effective but honestly i do it as much for personal enjoyment as for public linkbaiting) anyway, i appreciate the more straightforward way that folks like PG, Chris Dixon, and Fred Wilson write (all are among my favorites), but it just isn't quite my thing. apologies if i end up seeming a bit off the wall. maybe we can clear it up over a beer sometime. cheers,
  - shadowsun7 17y ago
    Well I never - there's a good man behind that personality, after all. =) Alright, Dave, fair enough. I don't necessarily like the way you write, but I'm convinced enough to subscribe to you. Best of luck in your future writing.
lsc 17y ago
why do you think ebay is going away? the only real threat to them I see is amazon, and ebay has some advantages to amazon. It's pretty much the only place to go for parts that are hard to find. (for example, most of the places that claimed to have my x60s battery in fact did not. the ebay seller, thanks to the ebay reputation system, did. I usually go to ebay over unknown resellers on the 'net simply because if an ebay seller says they have part X, they usually do.)
- davemc500hats 17y ago
  i'm sure there will be room for auction-style services, but there's going to be innovation and competition there, and eBay just isn't moving very quickly these days. the other major trend is that both search and social distribution have substantially eroded eBay's original network effect as a destination for buyers & sellers... now both search (via SEM) and social (via FB & other networks) are also able to acquire & influence buyers. anyway, i probably rag on eBay a little too much since i used to work there (via PayPal), but they have slowed down on the innovation quite a bit. that used to be offset by them buying innovative services, but that has also slowed down in recent years.
  - lsc 17y ago
    I agree they don't seem to be innovating, but heck, neither is craigslist, and I don't see them going anywhere. I think that until someone else would need to come along with something significantly better /and/ have significant advertising dollars to compete with ebay. (either that or ebay would need to screw up it's reputation system and badly.) I don't think that facebook or any of the other social networks will compete in that arena... the social networks may help in advertising, e.g. driving people to a particular purchase, but I go to ebay to /find/ something, and I don't think facebook is a useful model for that sort of thing. Sure, you can buy shit from your friends on facebook; I do that without an online social network, through mailing lists and other informal networks. But I don't think that really competes with ebay in any meaningful way.
    - davemc500hats 17y ago
      check out http://payvment.com http://payvment.com & http://yardsellr.com http://yardsellr.com craigslist is not in any great danger, but they also aren't innovating much... and even they too face competition from social platforms eventually if they keep standing still.
      - lsc 17y ago
        as far as I can tell, neither of those allow me to search for 'sv650 shift lever' after I drop my bike. The whole point of ebay is that I can pay 'some guy wants to get rid of it' prices, and still get exactly what I want, even if what I want is kindof weird. I am not sure that a social platform is best for selling things; I don't care what you look like, your sexual orientation, or how much you love your dog. I want to know if you will send me the item after I pay for it, and I want to know if the item will be in the condition you said it was in.

Hi Dave, Your comments on HN are clear, simply written, and to-the-point. When you defend your arguments here, you make perfect sense. I'm not sure why you write the way you do on your blog. Could it be that you're just looking for attention/linkbait? Please, stop. You're famous enough in startup circles to be able to run on the strength of your ideas alone. I think people here are beginning to realize that - once we parse through your language we'll find some fantastic ideas. There are many more people who can't/won't get past the parsing (for instance, while I like your ideas, you're not in my feedreader). There's no reason not to write simply, and clearly, the way you write on HN now. Right?

davemc500hats 17y ago
thanks for the kind words. (i think?) but really... i'm not trying to write for fame & fortune, i'm just having fun. (ok, yeah i'm pretty sure it's also somewhat effective but honestly i do it as much for personal enjoyment as for public linkbaiting) anyway, i appreciate the more straightforward way that folks like PG, Chris Dixon, and Fred Wilson write (all are among my favorites), but it just isn't quite my thing. apologies if i end up seeming a bit off the wall. maybe we can clear it up over a beer sometime. cheers,
- shadowsun7 17y ago
  Well I never - there's a good man behind that personality, after all. =) Alright, Dave, fair enough. I don't necessarily like the way you write, but I'm convinced enough to subscribe to you. Best of luck in your future writing.

lsc 17y ago

why do you think ebay is going away? the only real threat to them I see is amazon, and ebay has some advantages to amazon. It's pretty much the only place to go for parts that are hard to find. (for example, most of the places that claimed to have my x60s battery in fact did not. the ebay seller, thanks to the ebay reputation system, did. I usually go to ebay over unknown resellers on the 'net simply because if an ebay seller says they have part X, they usually do.)

davemc500hats 17y ago
i'm sure there will be room for auction-style services, but there's going to be innovation and competition there, and eBay just isn't moving very quickly these days. the other major trend is that both search and social distribution have substantially eroded eBay's original network effect as a destination for buyers & sellers... now both search (via SEM) and social (via FB & other networks) are also able to acquire & influence buyers. anyway, i probably rag on eBay a little too much since i used to work there (via PayPal), but they have slowed down on the innovation quite a bit. that used to be offset by them buying innovative services, but that has also slowed down in recent years.
- lsc 17y ago
  I agree they don't seem to be innovating, but heck, neither is craigslist, and I don't see them going anywhere. I think that until someone else would need to come along with something significantly better /and/ have significant advertising dollars to compete with ebay. (either that or ebay would need to screw up it's reputation system and badly.) I don't think that facebook or any of the other social networks will compete in that arena... the social networks may help in advertising, e.g. driving people to a particular purchase, but I go to ebay to /find/ something, and I don't think facebook is a useful model for that sort of thing. Sure, you can buy shit from your friends on facebook; I do that without an online social network, through mailing lists and other informal networks. But I don't think that really competes with ebay in any meaningful way.
  - davemc500hats 17y ago
    check out http://payvment.com http://payvment.com & http://yardsellr.com http://yardsellr.com craigslist is not in any great danger, but they also aren't innovating much... and even they too face competition from social platforms eventually if they keep standing still.
    - lsc 17y ago
      as far as I can tell, neither of those allow me to search for 'sv650 shift lever' after I drop my bike. The whole point of ebay is that I can pay 'some guy wants to get rid of it' prices, and still get exactly what I want, even if what I want is kindof weird. I am not sure that a social platform is best for selling things; I don't care what you look like, your sexual orientation, or how much you love your dog. I want to know if you will send me the item after I pay for it, and I want to know if the item will be in the condition you said it was in.