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The Linux Desktop Is Studded with Grifters

thelinuxdesktop.blog

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Re: The Linux Desktop Is Studded with Grifters

#11

Post by VLM »

Not really a linux story, its more "crowd funding doesn't work as an effective market in the presence of crooks"

And in a "bad money always chases out good money" crowdfunded projects seem mostly composed of noobs/crooks. Pros can't compete with infinite supply of people having no idea what they're doing or no intention to do anything, but willing to charge 10% less than the absolute minimum required for success, so pros can't participate in crowdfunding, the marketplace always becomes more toxic with time.

Re: The Linux Desktop Is Studded with Grifters

#12

Post by austincheney »

phendrenad2 wrote: post #2

Invoking Occam's Razor, I think that most people who come into the open-source community, promise the moon, and open a Patreon/paypal, actually believe that they can make a difference where so many others failed. They've just vastly underestimated how hard it is to accomplish their promised goal. Then they get defensive. They use the newly-discovered complexity as an excuse to keep accepting donations, and put projec…

Why would anybody invest in a project that doesn’t exist? This sounds like a case of the Emperor’s Clothes.

Re: The Linux Desktop Is Studded with Grifters

#13

Post by api »

austincheney wrote: post #12
phendrenad2 wrote: post #2

Invoking Occam's Razor, I think that most people who come into the open-source community, promise the moon, and open a Patreon/paypal, actually believe that they can make a difference where so many others failed. They've just vastly underestimated how hard it is to accomplish their promised goal. Then they get defensive. They use the newly-discovered complexity as an excuse to keep accepting donations, and put projec…

Why would anybody invest in a project that doesn’t exist? This sounds like a case of the Emperor’s Clothes.

Well in VC the answer is "the founders worked at Google" or "the founders went to Stanford."

Re: The Linux Desktop Is Studded with Grifters

#14

Post by zabatuvajdka »

phendrenad2 wrote: post #2

Invoking Occam's Razor, I think that most people who come into the open-source community, promise the moon, and open a Patreon/paypal, actually believe that they can make a difference where so many others failed. They've just vastly underestimated how hard it is to accomplish their promised goal. Then they get defensive. They use the newly-discovered complexity as an excuse to keep accepting donations, and put projec…

The problem I think is largely due to lack of checks-and-balances. In the office you have investors who can apply pressure to management, who apply pressure to developers and hold them to a schedule; the lack of peer reviews (potentially) and transparency on the implementation are a problem too.

In the end, what is to stop the developers from walking away? They stand to lose nothing.

I think these platforms need to add legally binding contracts that will force developers to deliver or else they owe a large percentage of the money back (something like that).

Re: The Linux Desktop Is Studded with Grifters

#16

Post by fmajid »

api wrote: post #13
austincheney wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why would anybody invest in a project that doesn’t exist? This sounds like a case of the Emperor’s Clothes.

Well in VC the answer is "the founders worked at Google" or "the founders went to Stanford."

Brock Turner went to Stanford as well.
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