31–40 of 60 posts
Spamming isn't illegal. In fact, it can teach you a lot about marketing. I'm actually impressed than an 18 year old could make enough with it to pay for school.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/E-mail_spam_legislation_by_coun...
"Aaron, this is not an appropriate posting. This is not a list for advertising."
Pot meet kettle.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
> Who knows what guy is like now When a spammer gets caught attacking the commons yet again via a new company's "contractors" who just happen not to have been prosecuted or sued or even identified, it's pretty obvious he is the creature he always was. http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2603844 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2610145
The fact that people assume Airbnb was automating spam is entirely false. At one point in our past we did have a small team of remote sales people that we contracted to acquire listings through person-to-person sales, but their efforts were largely ineffective. To set the record straight this process was never automated as purported. Our sales team emailed listings on Craigslist one-by-one and targeted only listings…
Also, stop being a bullshit artist. Let me rewrite your second paragraph for you in a truthful fashion: "Yeah, we spammed people. Our sales team went through craigslist and emailed listings we wanted to poach, even if they'd said they didn't want to receive such emails. We're those assholes. But please, let me write about this in the passive tense and distance ourselves from it. What I'd really like is for none of you to hold our admitted conduct against us because, well, that would be really convenient. For us, that is. Further, please don't judge our current conduct by our past actions because, well, again, way more convenient if we can just say random external contractors and start over with a blank slate."
Spamming isn't illegal. In fact, it can teach you a lot about marketing. I'm actually impressed than an 18 year old could make enough with it to pay for school.
It's illegal in quite a lot of countries. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/E-mail_spam_legislation_by_coun...
Of course, you realize that could, at an extreme, mean that you cannot send a personal email to someone else you have previously not corresponded with.
Spamming refers to sending unsolicited email. Sending unsolicited emails isn't illegal; sending unsolicited emails that do not adhere to the law is illegal in America.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
When I read custom hardware within the same line as 18 year old I assumed it should be read as "assembled his own PC".
The same guy saying that, however, is now co-founder of FaceCash. You'd think he would know better.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
The fact that people assume Airbnb was automating spam is entirely false. At one point in our past we did have a small team of remote sales people that we contracted to acquire listings through person-to-person sales, but their efforts were largely ineffective. To set the record straight this process was never automated as purported. Our sales team emailed listings on Craigslist one-by-one and targeted only listings…
Yeah, it's just a really weird coincidence that someone who made a couple hundred thousand dollars spamming in college later used the same techniques in a new business? Well, maybe, but you're going to need to do better than say cross my heart and pinky swear. Also, stop being a bullshit artist. Let me rewrite your second paragraph for you in a truthful fashion: "Yeah, we spammed people. Our sales team went through c…
> Well, maybe, but you're going to need to do
> better than say cross my heart and pinky swear.
I have seen Aaron spam mailing lists for FaceCash. When I search his name in Gmail, I see a few of gems like this: "Aaron, this is not an appropriate posting. This is not a list for advertising." Pot meet kettle.
Do you have another example of him spamming a mailing list?
If asked to name the top three people I'd be most unlikely to work with, I'd only be able to name one: Aaron Greenspan. I am so tired of the constant stream of whining (on his blog, HN, twitter, quora, etc) about how everyone is against him and everything is not fair. And now he's bad-mouthing more people, all as part of his overall theme of whining about how Facecash is a brilliant idea that obviously can't get any…
He's just a child.
Onto the article itself, I find it concerning that some people can break the law and get away with it while others can't.
If you want to understand him, just imagine a very sensitive precocious child raised on a rigid deontological morality by highly rigid and argumentative parents. This values system is characterized by a rigid logic that mainly focuses on things that are disallowed. For instance, lying is disallowed, betrayal is disallowed, and perfect obedience to official rules and legitimate authority is seen as the highest life virtue. The legitimacy of the authority though is dependent on the attempt of the authority to enact fair rules.
Aaron, as a precocious and sensitive boy who was mature for his age and learned logical reasoning early, absorbed his moral lessons very well and set them up as a set of rigid unbendae rules in his psyche.
When this kind of compex, highly integrated, high integrity, rigid value system encounters reality it finds outrage absolutely everywhere because the truth is that most authorities are quite incompetent and very far from fair. The hackers who are willing to break the rules have an unfair advantage over Aaron, who is literally incapable of breaking the rules due to his early programming. To rectify this intolerable unfairness he must demonstrate how the authorities are not properly punishing the rule breakers and t is hoped that this will ameliorate the unfairness.
I have a lot of sympathy for Aaron. He is really a victim of his short sighted parents who deeply indoctrinated him with this ideology that puts him at a major disadvantage in the modern day. It's not a simple thing to change or break this ideology even if he wanted to, because there are tremendous anxiety barriers stopping him from breaking any rules. He would feel extremely guilty and worried if he used patently selfish intentions and engaged in borderline unethical behaviour like spamming porn for money.
Aaron did everything right. He never lied, never stole, never even used deception or committed a lie of omission. He always shared with others and always engaged brotherly love. He had plenty of chances to betray people's trust for profit and did not take them. He worked hard and long with perfect integrity - moral perfection. And what did he get for it? Nothing. Zuck got 4 billion and his name in the history books for lying, cheating, breaking the rules. That could have been aaron, but Aaron was too morally perfect. It's just not fair!! And it's all the fault of Authority for failing to punish those who broke the rules.
Aaron - society is not to blame for rewarding cheaters. Your parents are to blame for giving you a crippling moral compass that is out of touch with reality.