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Soylent Campaign

campaign.soylent.me

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Re: Soylent Campaign

#81

Post by NickM »

DanBC wrote: post #17

Some people said that it was only a matter of time before this person started charging money for this crank product, and I guess this proves them right. He's making a number of health claims on that page. I'm curious about the legality of doing so; it's not legal in the UK unless he meets some pretty strict criteria. > If not for this waste there would be plenty of food to adequately nourish everyone alive. Waste foo…

Why do people use really inefficient dirty open fires to cook? Why aren't they using better stoves? It's not as if a stove requires huge amounts of resources.

Or better still, why not just let them eat cake? Then they won't need stoves or fires at all! Those poor people out in third-world countries sure are silly....

Sarcasm aside, if someone can't afford a better stove they're not going to be able to afford Soylent, so it's a pretty ridiculous benefit to cite in the first place.

Re: Soylent Campaign

#82

Post by crististm »

typicalrunt wrote: post #59

Is soylent vegan available yet? Not yet. This first run will be the regular vegetarian soylent, but it is lactose free, kosher, halal, and absent of all known allergens I believe soy is an allergy to some people. What does "absent of all known allergens" mean then?

Then it must be the green flavor.

Re: Soylent Campaign

#83

Post by gamegoblin »

marknutter wrote: post #62
ChuckMcM wrote: post #47

Limited market appeal (folks who eat to live vs live to eat) and it lacks the credibility of a clinical study done under the supervision of folks who have the experience to evaluate the results. So in that way it is simply another "look, eating this probably won't kill you, at least not quickly." product. There are many of these introduced and produced every year. That said, to the extent that this guy can get tracti…

In the end though, it's just food. I could launch a kickstarter campaign that sold veggie shakes and claim it makes people feel healthier when they drink them and it would be no more harmful than this campaign.

I think that the difference is that Soylent aims to replace (or come close to replacing) one's entire diet.

Re: Soylent Campaign

#84

Post by Afforess »

jckt wrote: post #76
Afforess wrote: post #70

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Wow, it's like the "Hacker News Is Depressing" Article didn't happen. I trust the Soylent folks more than I trust myself purchasing frozen meals in a grocery store. It's hard to be worse than that benchmark.

Are we not allowed to criticise anymore? Chasing makes a good point. They simply stated several claims, and didn't even attempt to substantiate them at all.

Chasing is clearly spreading FUD. Claiming they are breaking FDA rules, without any backup to that assertion is pretty much the definition of FUD. What FDA rules could they be violating?

----Edit: Also noticed this----

Soylent will be produced in an FDA-approved facility with strict regulatory controls ensuring safety.

Re: Soylent Campaign

#85

Post by jckt »

marknutter wrote: post #62
ChuckMcM wrote: post #47

Limited market appeal (folks who eat to live vs live to eat) and it lacks the credibility of a clinical study done under the supervision of folks who have the experience to evaluate the results. So in that way it is simply another "look, eating this probably won't kill you, at least not quickly." product. There are many of these introduced and produced every year. That said, to the extent that this guy can get tracti…

In the end though, it's just food. I could launch a kickstarter campaign that sold veggie shakes and claim it makes people feel healthier when they drink them and it would be no more harmful than this campaign.

This is not a veggie shake though. I'm pretty sure most people who eat this would eat this in conjunction with other foods, but the few that really do try to eat Soylent alone, and for long periods of time, which is exactly the idea they're pushing, that may be harmful.

Re: Soylent Campaign

#86

Post by gergles »

gcb0 wrote: post #9

Anyone ever heard of the kickstarter clone they are using? http://www.crowdhoster.com/ it seems to just be a implementation of Selfstarter with a backend to process payments, but at the same time they boast "Free to use"... how can a payment processing be free?

It uses Crowdtilt to process payments, which takes 2.5%. Although the wording of the statement isn't crystal clear; they may charge the people wishing to contribute an extra 2.5%? Regardless, 2.5% gets skimmed off for payment processing.

https://www.crowdtilt.com/learn/fees

Re: Soylent Campaign

#87

Post by evv »

Afforess wrote: post #70
chasing wrote: post #65

"Soylent is perfectly balanced and optimized for your body and lifestyle, meaning it automatically puts you at an optimal weight, makes you feel full, and improves your focus and cognition." Bull-fucking-shit. This is a product made by four twenty-somethings, none of whom appears to have a background in nutrition or any kind of health studies. To trust your health to these people would be fucking stupid. Jesus. Also:…

Wow, it's like the "Hacker News Is Depressing" Article didn't happen. I trust the Soylent folks more than I trust myself purchasing frozen meals in a grocery store. It's hard to be worse than that benchmark.

Its not like one article would change the behavior of everyone on here.

HN has pessimism in its culture, and most of the best comments are the critical ones.

Re: Soylent Campaign

#88

Post by iandanforth »

I really enjoy this campaign because it gave me an excuse to compare it with snake oil labels. (https://www.google.com/search?q=snake+oil+label&tbm=isch...)

The characteristic of this kind of marketing that I enjoy the most is the presence of what I call 'linguistic asymptotes.'

These are words that imply a product has unparalleled or infinite properties.

On the soylent page we have "ubiquitous", "perfectly", "optimized", "automatically", and "optimal" all in the first paragraph.

On a sample of snake oil labels we have 'instantaneously', 'cures all aches and pains', 'always', 'strongest', and 'immediate.'

It's very difficult for a claim that contains a linguistic asymptote to be true, but it's cognitively very easy to understand and process. You don't have to consider your personal medical history, or cost, or anything else really, because the product is 'always' right for you!

Fun stuff.

Re: Soylent Campaign

#89

Post by postfuturist »

smacktoward wrote: post #60
DanBC wrote: post #17

Some people said that it was only a matter of time before this person started charging money for this crank product, and I guess this proves them right. He's making a number of health claims on that page. I'm curious about the legality of doing so; it's not legal in the UK unless he meets some pretty strict criteria. > If not for this waste there would be plenty of food to adequately nourish everyone alive. Waste foo…

Yeah really. If that figure is incorrect, building a better cook stove would be an excellent place to apply some engineering know-how. Reinventing food is less so.

People are working on this very problem: http://ecozoomstove.com/
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