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There is no Jake Frink

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Re: There is no Jake Frink

#21

Post by pseudonym »

patio11 wrote: post #15

So I have a friend. For the purpose of this post, I'm going to call him Hideyuki Chikafuji. That isn't his name, but it gives the right sort of feel. He works as a well-paid professional in an industry which isn't investment banking, but could be. He has a degree from Northwestern in, well, let's call it Physics. Magna cum laude. What question do you think he gets asked in every job interview? If your answer was "Do…

It's Reddit. Reddit, when it comes to doing things for the community, absolutely doesn't care what your race or gender is. What Reddit also is, though, is violently anti-commercialism. Any sort of additional advertising, or company-posing-as-a-user, or anything that tries to take advantage of the community's overall good will in that fashion, will get slapped down.

That's currently the case here. It seems to be a company (a small one, mind you), who lied about who they were, and why they were doing what they were doing.

Now, it seems to be a small enough company that if they had let this be known from the get-go, then Reddit wouldn't have cared. However, from what seems to be the case, they didn't even use one of their cofounders as a "company face" sort of deal-- they have, in essence, made up a person from the ground up, to the standard of "Well, Starcraft players can relate to someone like this", to PR for them.

That is what's got people pissed off.

Re: There is no Jake Frink

#22

Post by jrbj »

patio11 wrote: post #15

So I have a friend. For the purpose of this post, I'm going to call him Hideyuki Chikafuji. That isn't his name, but it gives the right sort of feel. He works as a well-paid professional in an industry which isn't investment banking, but could be. He has a degree from Northwestern in, well, let's call it Physics. Magna cum laude. What question do you think he gets asked in every job interview? If your answer was "Do…

The main issue here is that it appears that a YC company was claiming to be a hobbyist developer that solicited (and received) donations.

They haven't responded, so it could all be a misunderstanding. However, it doesn't look good.

Re: There is no Jake Frink

#23

Post by pseudonym »

shii wrote: post #14
mlinsey wrote: post #13

OK, so this is the second time in a week I'm going to have to post this PG quote: "Your comment is a classic instance of people on a forum rushing to judgment based on incomplete information. It's isomorphic to the sort of thing one sees on reddit, except that it's about startups rather than the federal government or international bankers." Edit: it looks like Jiggity (aka Jong-Moon Kim, Warp Prism's creator) has gon…

This looks pretty cut and dried, frankly. If it's not, will the real Jake Frink please stand up? From this[1] thread exchange, jakefrink is still keeping up the guise of the poor, trodden developer working his ass off for the community. This is either genuine and there's been a mistake, or Teevox guys are delusional and too caught up in their own web of lies. edit: After reading your long edit, it looks like it was c…

Based on this[1], it appears that the jakefrink account has been ninja-editing their signatures, from "-Jake", to "-Jake (Jong-Moon)", to nothing right now. So yes, it seems like the latter right now.

[1]http://www.reddit.com/r/starcraft/comments/im6r4/there_is_no...

Re: There is no Jake Frink

#24

Post by pseudonym »

jrbj wrote: post #22
patio11 wrote: post #15

So I have a friend. For the purpose of this post, I'm going to call him Hideyuki Chikafuji. That isn't his name, but it gives the right sort of feel. He works as a well-paid professional in an industry which isn't investment banking, but could be. He has a degree from Northwestern in, well, let's call it Physics. Magna cum laude. What question do you think he gets asked in every job interview? If your answer was "Do…

The main issue here is that it appears that a YC company was claiming to be a hobbyist developer that solicited (and received) donations. They haven't responded, so it could all be a misunderstanding. However, it doesn't look good.

They actually have responded[1], and it seems like they pretty much put their foot in their mouth, based on the highlighted reply.

[1] http://www.reddit.com/r/starcraft/comments/im6r4/there_is_no...

Re: There is no Jake Frink

#25

Post by jjayl »

It's difficult to see his replies because they are being downvoted on reddit, but at the very least he seems to be confirming that Jake Frink isn't his real name. http://www.reddit.com/r/starcraft/comments/im6r4/there_is_no...

I can buy that he wanted to use an alias, but pretending to have done it all on his own and having no affiliation with any company was a bad move.

I'd like to wait for more info before burning him on a stake though.

EDIT: "I was ashamed. It was the first time going through a startup experience. After telling everyone I'd be going over to the Bay Area to setup a startup, it was hard realizing it had failed. Those months after were very tough and I didn't know what to do."

Re: There is no Jake Frink

#26

Post by mahmud »

patio11 wrote: post #15

So I have a friend. For the purpose of this post, I'm going to call him Hideyuki Chikafuji. That isn't his name, but it gives the right sort of feel. He works as a well-paid professional in an industry which isn't investment banking, but could be. He has a degree from Northwestern in, well, let's call it Physics. Magna cum laude. What question do you think he gets asked in every job interview? If your answer was "Do…

I do business under an assumed name, FWIW.

Re: There is no Jake Frink

#27

Post by pseudonym »

shii wrote: post #2

Seems a lot of the newer YC bunch are playing dirty to win. pg encourages[1] this naughtiness, but I wonder if they sometimes go too far and what the recourse is after brand damage like this and a major shunning from the very communities they're targeting for. Startups like Airbnb which have engaged in this sort of behavior are a little entrenched by now and have considerable traction, but for littler guys like Teevo…

Honestly, I don't know if this was naughty in the way PG would define it. Naughty is a kind of word with a gleam in it's eye and nothing to be ashamed of. Based on the link from the "Naughty" section of your link[1], it seems more like a liberal, anti-establishment-for-the-sake-of-establishment mindset, and that's the sort of thing people like Banksy are lauded for.

This whole thing isn't naughty, just stupid in the extreme. There was no additional market to grab with this lie, just the potential to hemorrhage users once word of your initial shady tactics get out.

[1] http://www.reddit.com/r/starcraft/comments/im6r4/there_is_no...

Re: There is no Jake Frink

#28

Post by barredo »

patio11 wrote: post #15

So I have a friend. For the purpose of this post, I'm going to call him Hideyuki Chikafuji. That isn't his name, but it gives the right sort of feel. He works as a well-paid professional in an industry which isn't investment banking, but could be. He has a degree from Northwestern in, well, let's call it Physics. Magna cum laude. What question do you think he gets asked in every job interview? If your answer was "Do…

> Redditors are nortoriously anti-capitalist

I'd say: 'anti-corporation'

Re: There is no Jake Frink

#29

Post by ihodes »

mlinsey wrote: post #13

OK, so this is the second time in a week I'm going to have to post this PG quote: "Your comment is a classic instance of people on a forum rushing to judgment based on incomplete information. It's isomorphic to the sort of thing one sees on reddit, except that it's about startups rather than the federal government or international bankers." Edit: it looks like Jiggity (aka Jong-Moon Kim, Warp Prism's creator) has gon…

Thanks for posting this. I put it on /r/starcraft…I hope it's seen. Such a great product, and he sounds like a scrappy guy.

He posted a full explanation here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LiRzBnlbpUs

Re: There is no Jake Frink

#30

Post by [deleted] »

shii wrote: post #19
patio11 wrote: post #15

So I have a friend. For the purpose of this post, I'm going to call him Hideyuki Chikafuji. That isn't his name, but it gives the right sort of feel. He works as a well-paid professional in an industry which isn't investment banking, but could be. He has a degree from Northwestern in, well, let's call it Physics. Magna cum laude. What question do you think he gets asked in every job interview? If your answer was "Do…

I think you're mistaken about the issue at hand here, patio11. This has nothing to do with being anti-capitalist or having an Asian sounding name. This has to do with lying to the community about your story, playing up the good parts and running under a false narrative for no good reason. As pointed out in the linked thread, a competitor to Teevox, WellPlayed.tv has been completely transparent about the fact that it'…

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