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SF wants startups to behave, so why did it reject the ‘nice guy’ of e-scooters?

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Re: SF wants startups to behave, so why did it reject the ‘nice guy’ of e-scooters?

#151

Post by wutbrodo »

tempsy wrote: post #135
zozbot234 wrote: post #132

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Airbnb has compensating benefits though. You're living "like a local", in a space that might a lot more compelling to some than your average hotel room, and often in a non-touristy area where some goods and services can be quite a bit cheaper.

Lol it’s a marketing ploy. I can’t be happy “living like a local” when I’m wondering in the back of my mind if the apartment I’m staying at was illegally turned into a hotel (most likely yes) and getting dirty stares from the neighbors that actually live there.

I don't think the paranoia you're describing is typical of most Airbnb users. I'm sorry, and it sounds like what you're dealing with sucks, but these details don't psychologically cancel out the advantages for most people, and as such are nowhere near a "marketing ploy"

Re: SF wants startups to behave, so why did it reject the ‘nice guy’ of e-scooters?

#152

Post by aspaceman »

jseliger wrote: post #95
souterrain wrote: post #69

Forget for a moment that a bureaucracy is involved. If your company was bidding on a request for proposal (RFP) for a potential client, wouldn't you want to follow the customer's requirements? Often RFP teams use failure to follow directions or specifics in a proposal submission as an informal measure of the likelihood the respondent will fail to deliver on other requirements. I have worked for a company where I had…

I do grant writing for nonprofits, public agencies, and some research-based businesses, and we endlessly tell clients to follow all RFP requirements religiously and precisely. See https://seliger.com/2008/02/25/what-does-a-grant-proposal-lo... for example: Read the RFP carefully for formatting instructions and follow them precisely. For example, if the RFP says the proposal is to be double spaced, and does not make a…

The explanation for this phenomenon that I've always heard has been a matter of time.

If you're the bureaucrat reading applications, and you have a lot of applications that you need to narrow to one, you'll toss them for even the most minor rule violation.

Re: SF wants startups to behave, so why did it reject the ‘nice guy’ of e-scooters?

#153

Post by greglindahl »

m0llusk wrote: post #16

It would be nice to have a linter for government forms.

Organizations that are good at bidding use employees otherwise uninvolved with a particular bid to verify that the instructions are followed.

I have a friend who does this for research grant applications.

Re: SF wants startups to behave, so why did it reject the ‘nice guy’ of e-scooters?

#155

Post by newnewpdro »

reaperducer wrote: post #142
newnewpdro wrote: post #124

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Incorporating a company is a trivial matter as far as bureaucratic exercises go. It's like the cover charge at the bar of bureaucratic suffering. Generally it's what follows that becomes painful, depending on the business you're in and how large/active/complicated it grows to be if at all. I incorporated my first company as a teen, following instructions from a book in the local public library. I don't remember it re…

It was more than a simple incorporation. There was also all of the associated tax filings and entities. For example, I doubt as a teen you set up any kind of worker's compensation payment system for your employees.

The point is, you're not talking about getting a business license in a major city, or say... a liquor license, or like in TFA, a permit to be a newfangled e-scooter company - a context already embroiled in controversy.

You're just doing rubber-stamp "so he/she wants to be a corporation and pay taxes and employment security overheads, quarterly filings, and give us opportunities to bring on the hurt in the future, Sure thing!" kind of crap.

Re: SF wants startups to behave, so why did it reject the ‘nice guy’ of e-scooters?

#156

Post by kofejnik »

mikojan wrote: post #112
Consultant32452 wrote: post #97

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Right, and in order to get to this new better world with cleaner air and less stop and go traffic, who will be granted the special driving right and who will get denied? Please be as specific as possible. I want to know if I'm getting to drive on the traffic free roads or if I'll be stuck in public transportation with the peasants. This will impact my vote.

[flagged]

Why don't communists emigrate to North Korea? They will be able to enjoy state-provided public transportation and housing, away from those terrible profit-seeking capitalists

Re: SF wants startups to behave, so why did it reject the ‘nice guy’ of e-scooters?

#157

Post by dang »

mikojan wrote: post #112
Consultant32452 wrote: post #97

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Right, and in order to get to this new better world with cleaner air and less stop and go traffic, who will be granted the special driving right and who will get denied? Please be as specific as possible. I want to know if I'm getting to drive on the traffic free roads or if I'll be stuck in public transportation with the peasants. This will impact my vote.

[flagged]

It looks like you've been using HN primarily for political battle. That's against both the rules and the spirit of this site—HN is for intellectual curiosity, which is the first casualty of political battle. Therefore we ban accounts that do this, as the site guidelines explain: https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html. Would you please those and use HN in its intended spirit?

I was about to ban your account until I saw that you'd at least posted one thing about something else: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21752354.

There's lots more explanation about this here: https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=false&qu...

Re: SF wants startups to behave, so why did it reject the ‘nice guy’ of e-scooters?

#158

Post by tempsy »

wutbrodo wrote: post #151
tempsy wrote: post #135

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Lol it’s a marketing ploy. I can’t be happy “living like a local” when I’m wondering in the back of my mind if the apartment I’m staying at was illegally turned into a hotel (most likely yes) and getting dirty stares from the neighbors that actually live there.

I don't think the paranoia you're describing is typical of most Airbnb users. I'm sorry, and it sounds like what you're dealing with sucks, but these details don't psychologically cancel out the advantages for most people, and as such are nowhere near a "marketing ploy"

Most people don’t think about societal consequences of their purchasing decisions, I agree.

Re: SF wants startups to behave, so why did it reject the ‘nice guy’ of e-scooters?

#159

Post by dang »

randomsearch wrote: post #19

And what a disaster Airbnb and Uber have been for the cities they have invaded. That’s why people legislate against them.

We detached this subthread from https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21796096 since it swerved off topic into the nearest generic black hole.

Re: SF wants startups to behave, so why did it reject the ‘nice guy’ of e-scooters?

#160

Post by conistonwater »

stordoff wrote: post #147
xvector wrote: post #77

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think this is ridiculous. Formality to the absurdist extreme. Any mildly competent human being would overlook the letters “A3” not being above a certain safety paragraph. If a robot were processing these applications then the error might be forgivable. But if you’re a human on the job, society expects you to use the reasoning skills of a human. I think the sort of person that would reject Skip’s application is some…

I disagree with this. If they can't follow the formatting requirements of the application, then "what else are they overlooking, or likely to overlook once operating?" is a valid concern. They don't seem to indicate that it was an unknown requirement ("If the information does not have the letter A and the number 3 and then the paragraph below it, then it’s not there and you’re disqualified", [the CEO] said). I see so…

Wait, this doesn't sound right. The thing about brown M&Ms was that they'd had too many safety problems, and if numerous small things in the spec were violated that meant there was a safety problem. That's the core problem they were trying to solve. If numerous small things are violated in a form, like the ones mentioned elsewhere in the thread, then that's actually pretty minor.
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