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Notorious Airbnb squatter may be the dev behind two flailing Kickstarter games

polygon.com

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Re: Notorious Airbnb squatter may be the dev behind two flailing Kickstarter games

#51

Post by makomk »

lingben wrote: post #6

kickstarter is scammer heaven

Not only that, they don't give a fuck because they get a cut no matter what and have carefully disclaimed all liability. For example, remember how they made a big deal about changing their rules on hardware projects to protect backers after several scams made the news in a big way?[1] They've now quietly removed all those restrictions to make it easier to list scams, er, projects[2]. After all more projects equals more dosh for them!

[1] https://www.kickstarter.com/blog/accountability-on-kickstart... [2] http://www.bit-tech.net/news/bits/2014/06/04/kickstarter-ren...

Re: Notorious Airbnb squatter may be the dev behind two flailing Kickstarter games

#52

Post by codezero »

TheMagicHorsey wrote: post #30

What we must have is a network that enables a peer-to-peer trust rating for individuals. Sort of like Yelp, but for people. No doubt such a system would be a huge privacy problem for people as people would say that negative reviews reveal their private facts, or that those reviews are defamation. However, if the network is decentralized, then it might be possible to keep it running even in the face of opposition from…

A system like this would still not account for outliers, nor deal well with temporal changes. People can be completely well behaved for long periods of time and suddenly really hit rock bottom. If you're the person who they are interacting with at the time, the trust system fails. Sure they get a lowered rating now, but then you have to ask the system, was this person who had a bad interaction being honest and how much of a ding is this to a long record of good ratings.

There's no catch all, even a single, centralized system wouldn't be very successful at dealing with the outliers in human behavior on top of the questionable honesty of the people adding ratings to the system in the first place.

Re: Notorious Airbnb squatter may be the dev behind two flailing Kickstarter games

#53

Post by DanBC »

Steko wrote: post #26
DanBC wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I would be the owner i would not ,care.I would break the door and a few windows.and camp in front of the condo/house,while waiting for the guy to leave. It's probably really important that owners don't do this - renters (even terrible renters) have some legal protections and intimidation is a quick way to increase the legal costs and possibly end up in jail. EDIT: Wait, did you put "nut case" in after I posted? I m…

The owner is doing exactly the right thing here: turn the media loose & Airbnb will hopefully cover her losses. The scammer - Maksym Pashanin - is essentially trading what was left of his reputation for just a few thousand bucks. Heroin's a hell of a drug. Edit: added scammer's name in case he uses some bullshit right to be forgotten on other articles.

I thought the US inherited all that "innocent until proven guilty" stuff from England.

Re: Notorious Airbnb squatter may be the dev behind two flailing Kickstarter games

#54

Post by Spearchucker »

Nursie wrote: post #49
TheMagicHorsey wrote: post #30

What we must have is a network that enables a peer-to-peer trust rating for individuals. Sort of like Yelp, but for people. No doubt such a system would be a huge privacy problem for people as people would say that negative reviews reveal their private facts, or that those reviews are defamation. However, if the network is decentralized, then it might be possible to keep it running even in the face of opposition from…

That sounds horrific, and basically like a trial by popularity. Count me out.

I'm not so sure. Privacy is a big deal for me, but I'd sign up to something like this. If:

If it uses a mechanism like CardSpace (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windows_CardSpace) had:

=> I own my own data (client-side encryption on my client)

=> I consent to others accessing my reputation. Note that access means others can see, not get a copy of, and not keep.

=> I can withhold my reputation completely, or delete it at will.

In such a world, as Airbnb for example, I might make it easier for someone willing to share their reputation to rent a room. A non-existing or withheld reputation might require other checks (like a credit check), or verifiable references, for instance.

If thought through this might have uses. Primarily I'd need to know that it abides by the 7 laws of identity (http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/magazine/2006.07.7laws.as...). A lot of this technology exists. CardSpace is one example of a client app (I wouldn't use a web app to manage my reputation, but would be ok to use a service to let others leave feedback about me). Attribute provisioning in identity federation is another, and could be used as a mechanism to check someone's reputation, or to give feedback.

Re: Notorious Airbnb squatter may be the dev behind two flailing Kickstarter games

#55

Post by sp332 »

TheMagicHorsey wrote: post #44
gcarre wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

something like the Stasi files? http://www.spiegel.de/international/germany/stasi-files-revi...

Exactly wrong. Stasi files are held closely by the state. This network would be public, and everyone would be able to see what the scum are up to.

If everyone had Stasi files, it wouldn't really be better.

Re: Notorious Airbnb squatter may be the dev behind two flailing Kickstarter games

#56

Post by HarryHirsch »

TheMagicHorsey wrote: post #44
gcarre wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

something like the Stasi files? http://www.spiegel.de/international/germany/stasi-files-revi...

Exactly wrong. Stasi files are held closely by the state. This network would be public, and everyone would be able to see what the scum are up to.

Say again how many Yelp reviews are genuine and how many are planted by SEO outfits?

I doubt that 20 % of Stasi informers were double agents, if you led the Stasi on there were consequences.

Re: Notorious Airbnb squatter may be the dev behind two flailing Kickstarter games

#57

Post by thekevan »

_delirium wrote: post #36
thekevan wrote: post #33

This is a bit of a tangent, but what would there be to stop the woman who owns the condo to start signing 28 day leases with hundreds of other people? Imagine if dozens of good citizens showed up to the apartment at once, with a key, any time they wanted. They could just hang out and of course they also had a lease and a legal right to be there, so the original two couldn't do much, could they? That would make it muc…

That would be illegal in any jurisdiction I know of. I'm renting my current apartment; obviously my landlord cannot rent it out to someone else while I still live here. Now you might say: but what if you're living there illegally? Well, I'm not, say I! Now we have a civil disagreement over property and a contract, which is a matter for the courts to decide. If the landlord alleges I no longer have a right to use of t…

"That would be illegal in any jurisdiction I know of. I'm renting my current apartment; obviously my landlord cannot rent it out to someone else while I still live here."

Right, you probably have a lease. If you had a squatter's lease--or a de facto lease--couldn't she just allow more squatters?

I don't think what you say has direct bearing on this situation because you both entered into a specific agreement. There is most likely the precedent of you paying the landlord money, which shows you both agreed to a set of conditions.

Since these guys are squatters, they probably default to a default "lease" as defined by law. So the fact whether they are there illegally as held by the landlord doesn't even enter into it.

Re: Notorious Airbnb squatter may be the dev behind two flailing Kickstarter games

#58

Post by k2052 »

TheMagicHorsey wrote: post #30

What we must have is a network that enables a peer-to-peer trust rating for individuals. Sort of like Yelp, but for people. No doubt such a system would be a huge privacy problem for people as people would say that negative reviews reveal their private facts, or that those reviews are defamation. However, if the network is decentralized, then it might be possible to keep it running even in the face of opposition from…

http://signup.meowmeowbeenz.com/

Re: Notorious Airbnb squatter may be the dev behind two flailing Kickstarter games

#59

Post by _delirium »

sanderjd wrote: post #50
7Figures2Commas wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> In some ways, this is the dark side of disrupting established industries: legal protections aren't in place yet... That's simply not true. The homeowner voluntarily agreed to rent her home to someone for more than 30 days. On the 30th day, that person became a tenant and gained certain rights under the law. The homeowner still has legal rights of her own, but the nature of the rental she agreed to means that she wi…

> every serious party engaged in the rental business is familiar with these laws AirBnB's disruption is to enable unserious parties to engage in the rental business, so the negative effects of unserious parties engaging in the rental business can pretty reasonably be laid at the feet of that disruption.

For really casual renters I can see that: I think the "couchsurfing for money" type of AirBnB really is new, and brings in casual renters looking to rent out a couch or a spare room, or occasionally a spare apartment while they themselves are gone.

But dabbling into full-time landlording, where you buy an apartment just to rent it out, is not really new or newly enabled by AirBnB. It's not like VRBO checks your sanity either; if you want to not pay attention to rental laws and get screwed on VRBO you could do that, too. Probably that has even happened, but nobody cares, because there's a cultural expectation that if you're renting an investment property on VRBO, you have an idea of what you're doing, and if not, that's your problem.

Re: Notorious Airbnb squatter may be the dev behind two flailing Kickstarter games

#60

Post by aikah »

sanderjd wrote: post #50
7Figures2Commas wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> In some ways, this is the dark side of disrupting established industries: legal protections aren't in place yet... That's simply not true. The homeowner voluntarily agreed to rent her home to someone for more than 30 days. On the 30th day, that person became a tenant and gained certain rights under the law. The homeowner still has legal rights of her own, but the nature of the rental she agreed to means that she wi…

> every serious party engaged in the rental business is familiar with these laws AirBnB's disruption is to enable unserious parties to engage in the rental business, so the negative effects of unserious parties engaging in the rental business can pretty reasonably be laid at the feet of that disruption.

Airbnb,Uber,Kickstarter... shift all the risk on users/owners/renters/drivers/backers.

That's what make their business model very profitable.

Very low risk,they are not providing any real service but connecting 2 people,while still taking a good chunk of each transaction. "It's just a market place,just like an ad in a newspaper",at least,that's what they say.

So their business is not illegal per say.Only those who actually provide the real service face risks.

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