whit537

31 ms·

1. 331.▲
   by whit537 14y ago

   Afaict, the really new thing Balanced is doing that I haven't seen anywhere else is programmatically authorizing merchant accounts. Is anyone else doing that?
2. 332.▲
   Balanced Payments (YC W11) Raises $1.4M To Provide A Platform For P2P Markets(techcrunch.com)

   71 points by whit537 14y ago|31 comments
3. 333.▲
   by whit537 14y ago

   The primary goal is to keep stolen money out of Gittip. The secondary goal is to recover stolen money once it's inside of Gittip. There are other kinds of fraud to watch for but let's focus on this for now. If Gittip does nothing, then stol
4. 334.▲
   by whit537 14y ago

   P.S. albertzeyer is on Gittip: https://www.gittip.com/albertz/ and Flattr: http://flattr.com/thing/49143/Projects-artworks-writings-of-... Consider supporting him financially, if you like his work.
5. 335.▲
   by whit537 14y ago

   Got me, too. :^) https://twitter.com/whit537/status/266285523872657408
6. 336.▲
   by whit537 14y ago

   Gittip doesn't have profit, but it does collect a fee, and that fee needs to cover reimbursements and chargebacks. Here's the ticket: https://github.com/whit537/www.gittip.com/issues/152
7. 337.▲
   by whit537 14y ago

   I'm open to alternatives. What would you suggest?
8. 338.▲
   by whit537 14y ago

   Gittip is written in Python, where SQL's NULL becomes None, which is indeed false-y.
9. 339.▲
   by whit537 14y ago

   Well, Zeta Design & Development, LLC is technically the legal owner of Gittip, and I'm the owner of Zeta Design & Development, LLC. The open company philosophy means that I'm managing it as a community resource and not a closed prod
10. 340.▲
    by whit537 14y ago

    > But scale does funny things to good intentions. This is great feedback, thanks! You really nailed the ways that fraud burns both good people and good companies. What's the right thing to do, then? In publishing a detailed report about
11. 341.▲
    by whit537 14y ago

    Yeah, sorry. We have a new visual design waiting in the wings. https://github.com/whit537/www.gittip.com/issues/66 Hopefully this fraud thing dies down long enough for me to implement it, and/or someone else steps up to the plate.
12. 342.▲
    by whit537 14y ago

    Good point. I was trying to get something going quickly. I expect the system to continue evolving.
13. 343.▲
    by whit537 14y ago

    On another HN thread I learned about potential legal ramifications for "tipping off" criminals that seem to be behind PayPal's characteristic behavior: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4744371
14. 344.▲
    by whit537 14y ago

    We shall see if this intention is ultimately realizable.
15. 345.▲
    by whit537 14y ago

    Thanks! :^) Gittip is funded on Gittip, and isn't designed to be profitable per se. More info: http://blog.gittip.com/post/26350459746/the-first-open-compa...
16. 346.▲
    by whit537 14y ago

    Thanks! :^) Gittip lets you set up small anonymous weekly gifts between $1 and $24 to people who do good work. It ticks over every Thursday. Gittip is funded on Gittip and is trying to be an "open company:" http://blog.gittip.com/post/2635
17. 347.▲
    by whit537 14y ago

    Yeah, maybe should've gone with an enum. I end up doing "is_suspicious IS NOT null" etc.
18. 348.▲
    by whit537 14y ago

    Correct me if I'm wrong, but HackerSpaces are more about the space since you have to store your hardware somewhere and there's more tools involved. With software all you need is a laptop so an OpenHack could maybe migrate around more easily
19. 349.▲
    by whit537 14y ago

    What has been produced so far by groups under this banner? That's the interesting question, to me. Anything you can link us to?
20. 350.▲
    by whit537 14y ago

    My favorite thing about this is that it's not focusing on a specific technology. I'm pretty involved with the Python group here in Pittsburgh, but what I really love is doing stuff, not necessarily getting together and talking or sitting
21. 351.▲
    by whit537 14y ago

    In my experience, both firing someone and being fired are fraught exercises, and can generate a lot of heat on both sides of the relationship. I'm not going to leave Balanced just because they're clumsy at HR. If you think there are structu
22. 352.▲
    by whit537 14y ago

    Yeah, sorry, I wasn't clear: I'm pursuing openness because I believe in openness, not because I'm based in the US. I am glad to learn about this potential legal ramification, however.
23. 353.▲
    by whit537 14y ago

    Yes, though HNSearch hasn't quite caught up yet: http://www.hnsearch.com/search#request/submissions&q=git...
24. 354.▲
    by whit537 14y ago

    :^)
25. 355.▲
    by whit537 14y ago

    And that's a regrettable state of affairs, if you ask me.
26. 356.▲
    by whit537 14y ago

    Noted on the ticket, thank you.
27. 357.▲
    by whit537 14y ago

    Good call. I've made a ticket for this, "roll our own automatic fraud prevention," and have included this suggestion: https://github.com/whit537/www.gittip.com/issues/360
28. 358.▲
    by whit537 14y ago

    I am not aware of chargebacks yet. My understanding from other comments in this thread is that it takes months for chargebacks to hit.
29. 359.▲
    by whit537 14y ago

    Thanks, I started a ticket for this: https://github.com/whit537/www.gittip.com/issues/357
30. 360.▲
    by whit537 14y ago

    Would love to have you involved. The owner of FundHub kindly offered the domain to Gittip when we were thinking of changing the name a while back: https://github.com/whit537/www.gittip.com/issues/138