Our Commitment to Trust & Safety • Hacker News Board

Re: Our Commitment to Trust & Safety

#121

Post by temphn » Mon, Aug 01, 2011, 11:36 PM UTC

brianchesky wrote: post #109

friendstock wrote: post #108

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It was my impression too that the photo could be appropriate. EDIT: I've edited my comment to make it more constructive. Brian, I think you are doing a great job with AirBNB and handling this situation. Please take these comments as constructive criticism regarding the photo (in this particular situation).

:(

Yo man: f these haters. Even the well meaning ones with their rubbernecking advice, even the fellow YC alums who don't understand that when a man has just been through hell and back that the last thing he needs is more people piling on with "constructive criticism" in an open forum. A lot of people tried to kill you just now, with a few like Melinda Byerley openly admitting that this was just an opportunity to express their envy and hatred.

http://techcrunch.com/2011/07/31/another-airbnb-victim-tells...

For PR reasons you need to smile, even as JimmyL critiques the sincerity of your orthodontics. Smile on the outside and ask them in a chipper tone how you can be of service, but in the end, seriously, f* em. There's an insane amount of implementation work to do to get this 24/7 support and insurance program operational. F* em all and just plow. Pot of gold at the end of the rainbow. And your real customers and fans will thank you for it.

Re: Our Commitment to Trust & Safety

#122

Post by pbreit » Mon, Aug 01, 2011, 11:59 PM UTC

JimmyL wrote: post #28

Two things immediately pop out from this: "Earlier this week, I wrote a blog post trying to explain the situation, but it didn’t reflect my true feelings." I'm not sure how I feel about this line (I assume it's referring to his TC post). On one hand, it's nice that he's now 'fessing up with a this-is-how-I-feel post. On the other, it's a pretty clear admission that he's had no problems in the past sending out PR spin…

> "it didn’t reflect my true feelings"

Yeah, that phrase jumped out at me too. Both because it implies not telling the truth as well as still passing the buck (were they someone else's words?). And it's too bad because otherwise the post is good.

And I'd have to agree with commentary regarding the photo. It just doesn't strike the right tone of empathy and humbleness. I'm sure it's hard to be humble when you've created a rocket ship but it's a great attribute in these situations.

Re: Our Commitment to Trust & Safety

#123

Post by friendstock » Tue, Aug 02, 2011, 12:13 AM UTC

temphn wrote: post #121

brianchesky wrote: post #109

Earlier quoted context omitted.

:(

Yo man: f these haters. Even the well meaning ones with their rubbernecking advice, even the fellow YC alums who don't understand that when a man has just been through hell and back that the last thing he needs is more people piling on with "constructive criticism" in an open forum. A lot of people tried to kill you just now, with a few like Melinda Byerley openly admitting that this was just an opportunity to expres…

Point taken. For the record, I'm a big fan of AirBNB and have used it multiple times.

Re: Our Commitment to Trust & Safety

#124

Post by ZoFreX » Tue, Aug 02, 2011, 12:27 AM UTC

tptacek wrote: post #75

JimmyL wrote: post #65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I agree - but isn't this then a huge out for Airbnb, in terms of reducing the number of people that will actually be covered under this? NY has its well-known laws that make most Airbnb listing contrary to State law, and in my lease (for example) it specifically says that I can't rent it out to people without the landlord's permission - which I think is similar to most boilerplate leases. Given that, would all the da…

It seems silly to the point of trollish to argue that the $50k guarantee Airbnb announced in a post about EJ's incident would have been designed to exclude EJ. Give it a rest.

You have really been shutting down discussion on this issue. I don't know you from Adam but I think you need to step back a little and let people discuss all angles, I honestly think you're creating a little bit of a straw man here. I think it's reasonable to debate that yes, maybe this insurance will exclude a lot of people, and if so what does that mean for AirBnB's business model?

Re: Our Commitment to Trust & Safety

#125

Post by Becca365 » Tue, Aug 02, 2011, 12:32 AM UTC

I just paid $22.87 for an iPad2-64GB and my girlfriend loves her Panasonic Lumix GF 1 Camera that we got for $38.76 there arriving tomorrow by UPS. I will never pay such expensive retail prices in stores again. Especially when I also sold a 40 inch LED TV to my boss for $675 which only cost me $62.81 to buy. Here is the website we use to get it all from, GrabCent. çom

Re: Our Commitment to Trust & Safety

#126

Post by pavel_lishin » Tue, Aug 02, 2011, 12:32 AM UTC

mikemoka wrote: post #72

pavel_lishin wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Presumably by not paying out except in the case of a successful police investigation.

Yes this kind of thing is hardly sustainable, I think it may just be a smart PR move and they'll hugely downsize it or cancel it in the next months, after the storm has passed.

It's unsustainable only if they pay out to everyone who cries wolf.

Re: Our Commitment to Trust & Safety

#127

Post by edw519 » Tue, Aug 02, 2011, 12:47 AM UTC

Bravo. This looks like an excellent next step. Not necessarily the ultimate scalar, but it's nice to see the vector pointing in the right direction.

As was one of the many outspoken people in one of the earlier threads, I hope I speak for a lot of my fellow hn'ers when I say that we call 'em as we see 'em, for better or worse. Not necessarily in judgement, but as part of a community living through monumental changes of all kinds. Believe it or not, Brian, many of us really are on your side.

Like many other "new age" business models, I'm afraid I still don't really understand this one and it's prospects for the future. But it's safe to say you've just taken one giant step on that bumpy road to sustainability.

Two of the most important things I expect from any business is to always tell the truth and to always do the right thing. It matters less how long you take to get there than the fact that you actually do.

Looking forward to seeing how this plays out. Often being down, then up again makes you stronger than if you never went through the tough times in the first place.

Re: Our Commitment to Trust & Safety

#128

Post by [deleted] » Tue, Aug 02, 2011, 1:16 AM UTC

gobongo wrote: post #103

wheels wrote: post #98

So, this is a totally superficial comment, but here we go. Brian, as part of all of this crisis stuff, I think it's time to have a new profile picture taken. One where you don't look so, how should I say... 20. From rough calculation, I'm only a couple years older, but one thing that's stood out for me visually in all of this is that ... well, let's just say that it's one of those times where looking like the young s…

IMO the problem isn't that he looks 20, but rather that he looks pretty douchey in that photo. Looking young isn't so bad in this context, but looking like you just stepped off of the set of one of those MTV 'reality' shows is. I'm fairly certain this is going to get me down-voted through the floor, but please at least view the picture in question prior to down-voting me for saying this.

[deleted]

Re: Our Commitment to Trust & Safety

#129

Post by BrandonDC » Tue, Aug 02, 2011, 1:20 AM UTC

brianchesky wrote: post #109

friendstock wrote: post #108

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It was my impression too that the photo could be appropriate. EDIT: I've edited my comment to make it more constructive. Brian, I think you are doing a great job with AirBNB and handling this situation. Please take these comments as constructive criticism regarding the photo (in this particular situation).

:(

For what it's worth I think that the photo looks perfectly fine. I'd be a very happy person if I could photograph that well. Customers don't care how professional the profile pictures look. They care about their experience using the service itself.

Re: Our Commitment to Trust & Safety

#130

Post by mef » Tue, Aug 02, 2011, 1:21 AM UTC

brianchesky wrote: post #69

mef wrote: post #5

Seems like a pretty good response to the situation, especially the host insurance, 24-hour customer service, and improved guest verification. For Brian Chesky's sake I hope the SFPD actually have a suspect in custody this time.

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/blogs/techchron/detail?entry_i...

Great news, thanks for the link. From the article:

On 06/28/11 the SFPD through investigative leads conducted a search of a premise in Belmont, CA. Two people were detained, but released pending further investigation. The search yielded some of the items that were taken in the theft.

Later on that night through investigative leads, SFPD officers made an arrest of Faith Clifton, female, white, 19 years of age of San Francisco. Faith was booked into San Francisco County Jail that night on possession of stolen property, methamphetamine, fraud charges and outstanding warrant out of Milpitas, CA.

SFPD has been in contact with the victim and have been in contact with the website company, who has provided as much information as possible in this matter.