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How The Hell Is This My Fault?

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Re: How The Hell Is This My Fault?

#101

Post by babebridou »

rdouble wrote: post #92
babebridou wrote: post #87

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The thing is, there's no reason why it should cost 10k bucks in the first place. Okay, well, unless there are travel costs included. Fact is, before anything else, this is a personal matter, so do it as a person - ideally on your spare time (if you ever can make some) with your personal funds if you can - everyone will accept a founder doing this, it will not engage any responsibility/liability whatsoever, it will no…

In San Francisco it can easily cost $10K to get situated into a new apartment. The average rent is $2300, so $6900 and broker fees just to move in. Plus, she needs all new stuff.

I meant for the company. It's not needed to involve the company's money in this case.

As a side note, how big are those appartments in San Francisco? Here in Paris for that kind of money each month you get 60 square meters and no single person can afford those. Most live in a third or a half of this surface.

Re: How The Hell Is This My Fault?

#102

Post by dollarsigns »

blub wrote: post #75
dollarsigns wrote: post #70

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You would have a factual point if AirBnB prominently displays on relevant pages "We assume you are not stupid enough to rent out your primary residence. Make sure you don't since we are NOT in the insurance business and take NO responsibility for any damages".

This is the kind of situation that leads to 'Keep away from fire' labels being added to t-shirts. To me renting your home to a stranger and then failing to check up on them for an entire week is incredibly naive. 10 year old naive. I don't care if airbnb said that they would provide 100% insurance, I would still not do this, it is simply against how I know the world works. And don't tell me about the 'good human bein…

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Noblesse_oblige

Call me old fashioned, but I personally believe that we, the technical elite who effortlessly can integrate new tech into our lives and understand the deeper implications of technology being used -- here is looking at you Google founders in context of privacy -- are a form of a pseudo nobility and have responsibilities to our less fortunate brethren (who yes, sometimes DO need big warning stickers on comforters and coffee cups containing excessively hot liquids).

imho, this affair is simply a manifestation of a larger problem:

the profit motive has diluted hacker ethics.

Re: How The Hell Is This My Fault?

#103

Post by dr_ »

jacquesm wrote: post #91

Everybody calm down please. EJ is real, she's a real person, it really did happen, just in case anybody was still wondering about that. I've passed her contact info to PG and him being the smart man that he is I'm pretty sure that he can come up with a solution that will satisfy everybody and will allow the victim to move on and get AirBNB past this crisis. Any words to the effect that AirBNB is 'setting precedent' a…

If she's scared out of her wits, shouldn't she remove her blog postings, other than the last few that pertain to the episode with AirBnB?

It's not that difficult to figure parts of her identity from her prior postings and personally, if it happened to me and I was concerned for my own safety, that's what I would have done.

Re: How The Hell Is This My Fault?

#104

Post by blackboxxx »

jacquesm wrote: post #91

Everybody calm down please. EJ is real, she's a real person, it really did happen, just in case anybody was still wondering about that. I've passed her contact info to PG and him being the smart man that he is I'm pretty sure that he can come up with a solution that will satisfy everybody and will allow the victim to move on and get AirBNB past this crisis. Any words to the effect that AirBNB is 'setting precedent' a…

Did PG ask for EJ's contact info and express interest in her well-being, or did you pass it on unrequested?

Re: How The Hell Is This My Fault?

#105

Post by babebridou »

cageface wrote: post #94
babebridou wrote: post #61

This situation is in fact a very understandable vendetta of the unfortunate victim towards the rest of the world - and she is right - everyone should pay for what she suffered. The actual word is compassion, and there's never enough of it in the whole world for any single unfortunate person. With that said, no company with AirBnB's business model can publicly say they will assist victims whatever the cost. It's just…

I think their treatment of the victim is really a sideshow. The real issue here is that the underlying assumption that it was relatively safe to let total strangers into your home has been publicly shattered.

Give it time, and people will get out in the streets again (terrorist attacks), people will eat meat again (mad cow disease), people will buy cucumber again (killing cucumber), strangers will shake hands again (H1N1 influenza), hell, people will even go visit Chernobyl as tourists.

It's not a "real" issue, it's more of a temporary difficulty. AirBnB's business exists since the dawn of time. A setback, if you prefer.

Re: How The Hell Is This My Fault?

#106

Post by [deleted] »

WordSkill wrote: post #48

You know, I am no cheerleader for Michael Arrington, we've certainly banged heads a few times in comment threads (it's a fun way to spend an evening) but what Paul Graham is doing here is pretty cynical: Once it became clear yesterday that the empathically-challenged kids in charge at Airbnb had no clue of how to manage the problem, and that the company was hemorrhaging tens of millions in notional value every time B…

[deleted]

Re: How The Hell Is This My Fault?

#107

Post by merubin75 »

He had me until the last line: "I don’t know what Paul Graham means by 'typical Arrington fashion,' but I do know this. It’s not my job to fix it when companies do stupid things."

Bullshit!

No, it's not your job to fix the mess other companies create through stupid policy or bad decisionmaking. But it's also not your job to pile on and stir up everybody's passions when something goes wrong.

Michael Arrington is a huckster -- Walter Winchell and Drudge mixed together. For years, he's picked fights and written stories that destroy reputations. Then when he's called on to the carpet for his behavior, he reacts in the 'typical Arrington fashion,' by protesting his innocence and calling on his readers to save him.

I'm not an apologist for what Airbnb did here. But Michael Arrington and TechCrunch helped fan the flames. Not because they reported on it, but becausse of the WAY they reported on it. And now when they're called on it, he reacts by wrapping himself in a flag of righteousness.

Yep, smells like bullshit alright.

Re: How The Hell Is This My Fault?

#109

Post by jcunningham »

jacquesm wrote: post #91

Everybody calm down please. EJ is real, she's a real person, it really did happen, just in case anybody was still wondering about that. I've passed her contact info to PG and him being the smart man that he is I'm pretty sure that he can come up with a solution that will satisfy everybody and will allow the victim to move on and get AirBNB past this crisis. Any words to the effect that AirBNB is 'setting precedent' a…

Wouldn't the Airbnb guys have already given her contact info to PG if they had wanted to?

What made you decide to do so and did you ask her for permission to pass on her details to a third party?

Re: How The Hell Is This My Fault?

#110

Post by jacquesm »

blackboxxx wrote: post #104
jacquesm wrote: post #91

Everybody calm down please. EJ is real, she's a real person, it really did happen, just in case anybody was still wondering about that. I've passed her contact info to PG and him being the smart man that he is I'm pretty sure that he can come up with a solution that will satisfy everybody and will allow the victim to move on and get AirBNB past this crisis. Any words to the effect that AirBNB is 'setting precedent' a…

Did PG ask for EJ's contact info and express interest in her well-being, or did you pass it on unrequested?

Unrequested, I passed it on because in another thread he wrote that he 'doesn't know her'.

http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2822877

I figured PG needs to hear both sides of this story and needs to be able to ask questions to get to the bottom of this.

If he doesn't want to get involved at that level I understand, but then it probably would be better if he didn't comment on the matter at all, lest this somehow ends up reflecting bad on YC.

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