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Svbtle Funding

blog.svbtle.com

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Re: Svbtle Funding

#151

Post by 3pt14159 »

dcurtis wrote: post #51
w1ntermute wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You must've missed this post: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4996236

I now find those posts somewhat embarrassing. The vitriol was unnecessary and diluted my arguments. In fact, I no longer even link to those articles from my website. Still, I don't think something I wrote several years ago in a completely different context should impact your opinion of Svbtle as a network.

Don't be embarrassed of those posts. It is what we all think about so many shitty websites every single fucking day. Although I will say that blackatlas.com has turned out better than expected.

Re: Svbtle Funding

#152

Post by tptacek »

lmm wrote: post #141
pg wrote: post #103

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Man I have never wanted to see a company succeed more than I want to see Curtis' thing succeed now. What a bunch of wangs you all are.

If this is some kind of genius nerd underdog sympathy marketing ploy, I've never seen it done better.

Re: Svbtle Funding

#153

Post by oh_sigh »

wmf wrote: post #146
oh_sigh wrote: post #92

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

You are correct. But if that is the standard you hold critics to, as opposed to making statements based on all information available at a given time, then no critics would exist, because it is always possible for any group to enter unknown territory.

Re: Svbtle Funding

#154

Post by graue »

pg wrote: post #75
oinksoft wrote: post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

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…

Paul, I'm disappointed to see this from you. Calling someone a “hater”, no matter how carefully and eruditely you define the term, is still an ad hominem attack intended to dismiss their opinion. It's a DH1 on your disagreement hierarchy.

I visit Hacker News because, while not perfect, it does the best job of any internet forum I know of minimizing that kind of cheap attack. It worries me to see the person who created that forum publicly setting a bad example like this. You're basically saying, “ur all just haters, forget u guyz!!1” even if, superficially, the words you use seem smarter and more reasonable. And beyond being an unconvincing argument, I don't think it reflects well on you to be stooping so low (and flat-out insulting so many people) to defend your investment.

Re: Svbtle Funding

#155

Post by swombat »

pg wrote: post #122
jspthrowaway2 wrote: post #114

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Really? Wondering how to monetize a blogazine is concern trolling driven by hating Dustin Curtis? I worry that moderating this community has jaded you. (That's concern trolling.) It's a valid question, and one I'd ask of any blogazine that received funding; do you stick ads on it? Charge a subscription fee? Sell user data?

Not all of it, no, but some of it. (The whole point of concern trolling is that the two are indistinguishable, so you only notice something's amiss when you see odd patterns.)

For what it's worth, though I posted a post concerned about how Svbtle will make money (with some analysis), I have nothing against Dustin and I wish him the best with Svbtle and other endeavours. Just can't see how this thing makes money later. As a blogger myself, I'm somewhat attracted by Svbtle (there is something desirable about it), but I can't see the sense of blogging there rather than on my own platform. It seems inferior in every way...

boggles

Svbtle is a strange puzzle.

Re: Svbtle Funding

#156

Post by Confusion »

jspthrowaway2 wrote: post #68
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…

I don't like Dustin Curtis as a person, based on prior history (i.e., American Airlines, presumption in his articles bordering on know-it-all after accomplishing little, and so on). You might find that the majority of the haters you're talking about feel the same; there's been discussion about this recently linked elsewhere in the thread that I won't rehash here. If he's genuinely confused by the hate, that'd be surp…

Why do you feel the need to post this? Most here don't know you, don't know Dustin Curtis and couldn't care less about what you think of him personally. Your comment doesn't add any information to this discussion.

Re: Svbtle Funding

#157

Post by nicholassmith »

pknerd wrote: post #32
nicholassmith wrote: post #11

I wonder if they're going to try a revenue model that doesn't use ads, I can't see ads fitting the flow of the site overly well if they do go for them.

Selling data?

Selling what data though? There's probably some analytics, but enough for a VC to be interested? There's two outcomes, they're either bought by a bigger network and make the VC's happy, or they take find a revenue model and try make the VC's happy.

Curious to see what happens, if nothing it's been an interesting experiment for the web.

Re: Svbtle Funding

#158

Post by kmfrk »

lobster_johnson wrote: post #143
kmfrk wrote: post #69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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"?

I'm away from my desktop computer (and Opera's bookmark sync doesn't work on my MacBook Air, the PoS), but these two articles seem to capture the imbroglio well enough:

- http://www.pehub.com/114113/what-not-to-do-in-a-crisis-%E2%8...

- http://techcrunch.com/2011/07/30/how-the-hell-is-this-my-fau...

Re: Svbtle Funding

#159

Post by lmm »

tptacek wrote: post #152
lmm wrote: post #141

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I hate Dustin Curtis.

Man I have never wanted to see a company succeed more than I want to see Curtis' thing succeed now. What a bunch of wangs you all are. If this is some kind of genius nerd underdog sympathy marketing ploy, I've never seen it done better.

Underdog? Have you read anything the guy writes? He's like Kanye West but without the humility.

Re: Svbtle Funding

#160

Post by [deleted] »

Confusion wrote: post #156
jspthrowaway2 wrote: post #68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't like Dustin Curtis as a person, based on prior history (i.e., American Airlines, presumption in his articles bordering on know-it-all after accomplishing little, and so on). You might find that the majority of the haters you're talking about feel the same; there's been discussion about this recently linked elsewhere in the thread that I won't rehash here. If he's genuinely confused by the hate, that'd be surp…

Why do you feel the need to post this? Most here don't know you, don't know Dustin Curtis and couldn't care less about what you think of him personally. Your comment doesn't add any information to this discussion.

[deleted]
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