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Salesforce hackathon comes under attack from devs

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Re: Salesforce hackathon comes under attack from devs

#21
post #17

I work at salesforce but I am not a spokesperson for salesforce nor do I have any authority to speak for the company. What I write here, I write as a member of HNN only. I did not have any part in the hackathon process, but I had and still do have quite a bit of visibility on how the process was run. I can assure you that an enormous amount of effort went into the judging and that it was entirely unbiased. There were…

[deleted]

Re: Salesforce hackathon comes under attack from devs

#23
post #17

I work at salesforce but I am not a spokesperson for salesforce nor do I have any authority to speak for the company. What I write here, I write as a member of HNN only. I did not have any part in the hackathon process, but I had and still do have quite a bit of visibility on how the process was run. I can assure you that an enormous amount of effort went into the judging and that it was entirely unbiased. There were…

Are you saying that the dozens of people claiming that no one tested their apps are all lying? Like others have said previously, Salesforce must have forgotten about analytics.

I am saying that there is a misunderstanding. The earliest rounds of judging looked at the videos of the apps that contestants produced as well as a code review as a sanity check. This was done most likely so that each app could be viewed in the best possible light as well as to help the judges scale to the number of entries.

So, no, the people complaining are not lying but they and anyone else would be incorrect to conclude that their app was not evaluated. Every app was evaluated. All by videos. Some by code review. And a few through every reasonable means.

Re: Salesforce hackathon comes under attack from devs

#24
post #6

This is a general problem for hackathons, the idea of limiting something like development is impossible. Even if you don't code, you could plan the whole concept, user your super familiar framework and there is a huge difference to the "spirit" of just developing the concept on the spot. I don't want to say I dislike hackathons in general, but not for huge prices. Just meeting interesting people and trying to build s…

There are a number of ways to combat this.

- Have a theme, a dataset, or some other component that is not announced until the day it starts (and to be eligible an entry must demonstrate meaningful incorporation of that component).

- Have a manageable organizer-to-participant ratio so they can do a decent job of verifying that teams aren't using a developed concept.

- Don't allow premade teams, have individuals pitch concepts and form teams.

Each of those can be gamed to some degree, but they can go a long way, and to game them requires serious intent to deceive.

They didn't even try, at all. The winner was openly a fully formed startup that demoed their app at a Salesforce meetup weeks before the hackathon. That's just, mind-blowing.

Re: Salesforce hackathon comes under attack from devs

#25
post #17

I work at salesforce but I am not a spokesperson for salesforce nor do I have any authority to speak for the company. What I write here, I write as a member of HNN only. I did not have any part in the hackathon process, but I had and still do have quite a bit of visibility on how the process was run. I can assure you that an enormous amount of effort went into the judging and that it was entirely unbiased. There were…

What about the allegations that the winning team demoed their app weeks before the hackathon even started?

Re: Salesforce hackathon comes under attack from devs

#26
post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Are you saying that the dozens of people claiming that no one tested their apps are all lying? Like others have said previously, Salesforce must have forgotten about analytics.

I am saying that there is a misunderstanding. The earliest rounds of judging looked at the videos of the apps that contestants produced as well as a code review as a sanity check. This was done most likely so that each app could be viewed in the best possible light as well as to help the judges scale to the number of entries. So, no, the people complaining are not lying but they and anyone else would be incorrect to…

What about the people who checked the analytics on their videos and determined that they hadn't been viewed?

Re: Salesforce hackathon comes under attack from devs

#28
post #7

the article is stuffed with salesforce.com backlinks, including a nice salesforce profile at the bottom. any publicity is good publicity.

The summary of the company is the best part.

With more than 100,000 customers, salesforce.com is the enterprise cloud computing company that is leading the shift to the social enterprise. Social enterprises leverage social, mobile and open cloud technologies to put customers at the heart of their business.

I don't know what this means.

Re: Salesforce hackathon comes under attack from devs

#30
post #22

Where are the winners? I am sure they are on HN. Why are they so silent on this matter?

Uh... Not everyone is on HN. It's presumptuous to assume that because someone hasn't posted here, they're being "silent" on the matter.

I will be fair and yes not everyone. But they are the winners and we are poking at this matter for a day and I would be surprised they haven't checked HN (I am sure their friends are telling them about what readers think of them and Salesforce).
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