Ask HN: I am in a David vs. Goliath fight and I need some advice

I notified Kaggle.com within ~1hr of their announcement of the mistake and they did not get back with me for 2 days. 8 days after the announcement was made I was finally able to get a call with a Kaggle executive. The executive offered me partial prize money and kaggle competition points to resolve the matter unofficially. I said I wasn't interested. Kaggle then opened a new forum discussion [1] which a number of other competitors chime in and explain the limitations/bugs of the Kaggle.com platform specifically as it related to the FlightQuest competition and discuss my specific situation.

Finally, an executive from GE contacted me this morning over email and let me know that he supports Kaggle.com's decision of not recognizing me as the 4th place finisher.

I feel like Kaggle/GE have not handled this properly and I would like to get some opinions on what, if anything I should do.

[1] https://www.gequest.com/c/flight/forums/t/4284/acknowledging-two-more-great-competitors

"By participating in the Competition, each Entrant agrees to release, indemnify and hold harmless GE, Kaggle Inc., and their respective affiliates, subsidiaries, advertising and promotions agencies, as applicable, and each of their respective agents, representatives, officers, directors, shareholders, and employees from and against any injuries, losses, damages, claims, actions and any liability of any kind resulting from or arising out of your participation in or association with the Competition. GE is not responsible for any miscommunications such as technical failures related to computer, telephone, cable, and unavailable network or server connections, related technical failures, or other failures related to hardware, software or virus, or incomplete, late or misdirected Entries. GE reserves the right to cancel, modify or suspend the Competition should any computer virus, bug or other technical difficulty or other causes beyond the control of GE corrupt the administration, security or proper play of the Competition, and to determine winners from among Entries not affected by the corruption, if any, in its sole discretion."

I interpret that as saying: GE can pick the winners using its sole discretion. So I don't believe this is a legal issue I can win. I have a lawyer in the family, I will run it by her and see what her opinion is.

Some things are like futbol - there's no instant replay. Lawyering up isn't going to impress anyone.

From the response I have received from Kaggle/GE I get the impression, under no circumstances what so ever would they go back and change the published results of this competition.

You need objective advice, not coloured by "what if my advi e leads to not speaking to half the family" - don't put that on her.

Secondly, consult a lawyer because they have - if according to the common-sense rules you should get 30k (and I don't at all understand the situation) then no amount of disclaimers or indemnification deprives you - statute on competitions run for marketing purposes are widespread.

Maybe you have a case, maybe not, but without a lawyer you won't know and without a lawyer they (GE?Kaggle) won't take you seriously - which kind of screws the only other reason you seem to have for not getting a lawyer - the idea that maybe you will pick up some work later on. If they see you as a push over on this, why will they respect you next time?

This does not mean drop a writ for 10 million in the morning - get advice, if there is a case, ask if the lawyer can directly contact the organisers lawyers for clarification or discovery. If you have a case they will have to do something - push now, so that their decision has not been set in concrete and them moved on.