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Svbtle Funding

blog.svbtle.com

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Re: Svbtle Funding

#141

Post by lmm »

pg wrote: post #103
waterlesscloud wrote: post #85

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Then isn't the word "haters" misapplied here? What I've seen in this thread is that people have reasons for disliking Dustin, some of which directly relate to Svbtle. To the extent that they don't directly relate, though, people are quite explicitly saying they evaluate Svbtle separate from Dustin. And by far the most common reaction expressed is a lack of understanding any valid business model for the network, which…

HN users are sophisticated enough not to simply post comments saying "I hate Dustin Curtis." Here they resort to something more akin to concern trolling. The way you can tell something is amiss is the volume of commenters who seem worried about e.g. how Dustin is going to make money. If most startups issued such a bland funding announcement, it would sink beneath the surface of HN with barely a ripple of comment.

I hate Dustin Curtis.

Re: Svbtle Funding

#142

Post by FredBrach »

pg wrote: post #53

Svbtle is probably one of the most misunderstood companies we've funded. Partly because what they're doing is hard to understand, and partly because Dustin has alienated a few people along the way, who now in the usual way with haters want to misunderstand what Svbtle is. One of the reasons Svbtle is hard to understand is that it's a work in progress. At its current fairly fuzzy resolution, it's what I'd guess a trad…

What is the (unique) feature of Svbtel?

Re: Svbtle Funding

#143

Post by lobster_johnson »

kmfrk wrote: post #69
oinksoft wrote: post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Can we all agree to stop calling critics "haters"?

It's just baffling to see a public response so low on the taxonomic scale of debate. I couldn't agree more. It reminds me of pg's response to the Airbnb case.

I must have missed that, what as "the Airbnb case"?

Re: Svbtle Funding

#144

Post by tomkin »

notatoad wrote: post #130
tomkin wrote: post #110

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think most people separate Svbtle from Dustin, although I don't think Dustin necessary is advocating for this separation himself. You can see this in the comments. When people are being critical, it generally leans towards Dustin and not the product. When people are boasting Svtble, they rarely mention Dustin. There's a reason for that. It was clear to most that Dustin was expecting adoration and when that didn't h…

I don't see how anybody can separate Svbtle from Dustin. The whole selling point is that it is curated by him . It's a collection of blogs from authors that he likes. The product here is Dustin Curtis's opinion, not the content or the platform. Blog posts and blogging platforms are a dime a dozen, the only differentiating factor of Svbtle is Dustin Curtis's curation.

> The whole selling point is that it is curated by him.

I disagree. I doubt Subtle is getting funded because of Dustin Curtis' audience. For funding, the conversation of "market" had to come up and if the answer to "market" was "Dustin Curtis' fanbase", the investors would have had to be nuts to proceed. How big is the "Dustin Curtis" following? Hundred? Several hundred? A few thousand?

I don't think so.

Re: Svbtle Funding

#145

Post by sachingulaya »

nkohari wrote: post #138
pg wrote: post #75

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think not. Haters are distinctive enough that it would make the language less expressive to discard the word and merge it into "critic." I'm slow to adopt new words, but I think "hater" is a useful addition to the language, and not simply a pejorative version of "critic." The difference is that a critic is what you're called as a byproduct of being critical in a particular instance, whereas being a hater is an ongo…

Not to be pedantic, but the word "hater" typically refers to a person who dislikes someone out of jealousy. I think a lot of people dislike Dustin Curtis not because they're jealous of his notoriety, but rather because of his attitude -- or at least the personality he projects on the internet.

Although I disagree with pg's usage of 'hater'(it's arrogantly dismissive in this context) I thought I would provide the surprisingly poignant urbandictionary.com definition:

" A person that simply cannot be happy for another person's success. So rather than be happy they make a point of exposing a flaw in that person.

Hating, the result of being a hater, is not exactly jealousy. The hater doesnt really want to be the person he or she hates, rather the hater wants to knock somelse down a notch."

Re: Svbtle Funding

#146

Post by wmf »

oh_sigh wrote: post #92
pg wrote: post #75

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think not. Haters are distinctive enough that it would make the language less expressive to discard the word and merge it into "critic." I'm slow to adopt new words, but I think "hater" is a useful addition to the language, and not simply a pejorative version of "critic." The difference is that a critic is what you're called as a byproduct of being critical in a particular instance, whereas being a hater is an ongo…

You are correct with your definition of hater. The problem is that your original post doesn't leave any room for critics who comprehend the svbtles game plan, but still find it unappealing. The implication from your post is that 1) a community misunderstanding exists, and 2) that misunderstanding is caused by either people not being intelligent enough to see what svbtle is doing, or people having a personal vendetta…

We don't know what Svbtle's game plan is. We don't even know the set of all possible Svbtle business models (as some people are criticizing), because there are business models that haven't been invented yet.

Re: Svbtle Funding

#147

Post by nchlswu »

nchlswu wrote: post #101
kami8845 wrote: post #70

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think a lot of the initial dislike stems from the svbtle/obtvse thing, where Dustin went into all-out-rage because someone cloned what amounted to not-much-more than a Wordpress theme. That and the air of superiority within the announcement: svbtle would only be used by people who are "intelligent and witty" implying that everyone who couldn't, wasn't.

It definitely stems from both factors you mentioned. No one really knows who Dustin is and he's established a brand as a person who aspires for the best and is very opinionated . For better or for worse, most commenters only really know that about him. His response to the Svbtle clones on top of the personality he added to the Svbtle announement really acted as a tipping point for most peoples' perceptions about him.…

I've exceeded my editing time window, but asterisks are located before and after the italicized text.

They were intended as footnotes, but I forgot I was writing in markdown

Re: Svbtle Funding

#148

Post by lucisferre »

jspthrowaway2 wrote: post #94
batgaijin wrote: post #88

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think he's a bit of a d too, but I never heard about the AA story and just looked it up[1]. I assumed someone got fired because he was whining, but it seems AA fired someone for breaking their NDA to talk about why the website was so crappy. So, to me the story is more AA being the asshole in that story. [1] http://www.telegraph.co.uk/travel/travelnews/6531610/America...

When classifying assholes, there's no rule that states only one party can come out the asshole. Nobody won in that situation.

I'm not sure how anything Dustin did there would classify him as an asshole. Maybe I'm missing something.

He blogged about not liking the aesthetics of a website, sparked a discussion with on of the designers of that site and then AA fired the guy and Dustin said that he was "horrified" that it happened.

What's missing?

Re: Svbtle Funding

#149

Post by readymade »

oinksoft wrote: post #58
pg wrote: post #53

Svbtle is probably one of the most misunderstood companies we've funded. Partly because what they're doing is hard to understand, and partly because Dustin has alienated a few people along the way, who now in the usual way with haters want to misunderstand what Svbtle is. One of the reasons Svbtle is hard to understand is that it's a work in progress. At its current fairly fuzzy resolution, it's what I'd guess a trad…

Can we all agree to stop calling critics "haters"?

Perhaps instead of treating "haters" as a pejorative term one should feel inclined to stand by it. I don't see what's so odious about wanting to see assholes fail. If there's any justice or karma in the world, I'd expect it.

Re: Svbtle Funding

#150

Post by jm3 »

tomkin wrote: post #144
notatoad wrote: post #130

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't see how anybody can separate Svbtle from Dustin. The whole selling point is that it is curated by him . It's a collection of blogs from authors that he likes. The product here is Dustin Curtis's opinion, not the content or the platform. Blog posts and blogging platforms are a dime a dozen, the only differentiating factor of Svbtle is Dustin Curtis's curation.

> The whole selling point is that it is curated by him. I disagree. I doubt Subtle is getting funded because of Dustin Curtis' audience. For funding, the conversation of "market" had to come up and if the answer to "market" was "Dustin Curtis' fanbase", the investors would have had to be nuts to proceed. How big is the "Dustin Curtis" following? Hundred? Several hundred? A few thousand? I don't think so.

At least 40,000 if Twitter followers are anything to judge by: https://twitter.com/dcurtis
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