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The National Design Studio is a scam

chrbutler.com

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Re: The National Design Studio is a scam

#31

Post by wahnfrieden »

enobrev wrote: post #25

> They realized money could be made, and built a website to let other people do the same thing, through them, not [Craigslist]. This is important: the very first act of creation was an act of piracy. Unless Craigslist owned the building they lived in, this is a ridiculous assertion.

It's poorly written but you've misread the intended meaning. It says that they learned from illicit transactions on Craigslist. And then wanted to replicate that on their own platform.

They've edited a correction:

> They realized money could be made, and built a website to let other people do the same thing, through them, not Craig. Good on them, but renting a space is regulated differently than selling a used couch for many good reasons. What you could once attribute to the same quaint naivety of setting up a lemonade stand, you can no longer. The people who funded them knew better, and eventually, so did they.

Re: The National Design Studio is a scam

#32

Post by Pedro_Ribeiro »

delaugust wrote: post #18
havaloc wrote: post #15

"AirBnB’s present dominance isn’t the product of real innovation. He and his friends stumbled upon an idea after listing their apartment on Craigslist for under-the-table sublease during a popular conference." Does the author wish he thought of it first?

envy isn't necessary for legitimate critique you know

This barely qualifies as a critique; it's a hit piece with no constructive criticism and some anti-capitalist rhetoric thrown in.

> The National Design Studio is a clear case of nepotism, and they're greatly overpromising. Dismantling 18F was a massive mistake.

There, I just said the same thing but cut out the personal attacks and the ridiculous take that Airbnb was somehow built by thieves (does anything actually believe this?).

I'm surprised this article has stayed up this long. Have the mods read it? It's low signal-to-noise ratio.

Re: The National Design Studio is a scam

#34

Post by 2arrs2ells »

bigDinosaur wrote: post #27
ChrisMarshallNY wrote: post #7

One of the things about the Apple Store, is that folks want what it sells. Because of that, they put up with it. Personally, I find the Apple Store to be a pain in the ass. The online version makes me a clickaholic, and the IRL version is very confusing. Government sites are very different. I have no opinion on the new position. I don’t know the guy, and don’t use AirBnb. I just find that the insistence on making gov…

AirBnb has one dark pattern that I'm aware of, that I absolutely despise: the search listings don't display the actual price, but instead the price minus the fees (so not what you'll actually pay). Thankfully some jurisdictions made this illegal (e.g. if you use the Australian AirBnb website you'll get the actual prices), but it's a horrible pattern presumably designed to get people to commit to initiating a booking…

This has changed - at least for me, in the US, Airbnb shows all-in pricing.

Re: The National Design Studio is a scam

#35

Post by goldforever »

havaloc wrote: post #15

"AirBnB’s present dominance isn’t the product of real innovation. He and his friends stumbled upon an idea after listing their apartment on Craigslist for under-the-table sublease during a popular conference." Does the author wish he thought of it first?

[dead]

Re: The National Design Studio is a scam

#36

Post by enobrev »

wahnfrieden wrote: post #31
enobrev wrote: post #25

> They realized money could be made, and built a website to let other people do the same thing, through them, not [Craigslist]. This is important: the very first act of creation was an act of piracy. Unless Craigslist owned the building they lived in, this is a ridiculous assertion.

It's poorly written but you've misread the intended meaning. It says that they learned from illicit transactions on Craigslist. And then wanted to replicate that on their own platform. They've edited a correction: > They realized money could be made, and built a website to let other people do the same thing, through them, not Craig. Good on them, but renting a space is regulated differently than selling a used couch…

Even so, "piracy" is rather hyperbolic. The correction definitely clarifies the point.

Re: The National Design Studio is a scam

#37

Post by ChrisMarshallNY »

lotsofpulp wrote: post #30
ChrisMarshallNY wrote: post #7

One of the things about the Apple Store, is that folks want what it sells. Because of that, they put up with it. Personally, I find the Apple Store to be a pain in the ass. The online version makes me a clickaholic, and the IRL version is very confusing. Government sites are very different. I have no opinion on the new position. I don’t know the guy, and don’t use AirBnb. I just find that the insistence on making gov…

> In a local mall, we have an Apple Store on one end, and a Microsoft Store on the other. I had to check if I had opened an old thread. Microsoft closed all of its stores in Jun 2020. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_Store_(retail)

Shows how long it’s been, since I’ve been past there. I don’t really do IRL stores, much, these days (but I have been to the Apple Store a couple of times, in the last few years).

s/have/had/g

My bad. Thanks for pointing that out.

Re: The National Design Studio is a scam

#38

Post by foobarian »

2arrs2ells wrote: post #34
bigDinosaur wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

AirBnb has one dark pattern that I'm aware of, that I absolutely despise: the search listings don't display the actual price, but instead the price minus the fees (so not what you'll actually pay). Thankfully some jurisdictions made this illegal (e.g. if you use the Australian AirBnb website you'll get the actual prices), but it's a horrible pattern presumably designed to get people to commit to initiating a booking…

This has changed - at least for me, in the US, Airbnb shows all-in pricing.

This has started to turn around in the US, and states like CA and MN require it, with MA to follow in a few days.

The problem is that if you don't use that dark pattern, you take a double digit revenue hit. So you revert to the dark pattern while shaking your fist at why the customers "just don't understand?"

Re: The National Design Studio is a scam

#39

Post by ChrisMarshallNY »

bongodongobob wrote: post #26
ChrisMarshallNY wrote: post #7

One of the things about the Apple Store, is that folks want what it sells. Because of that, they put up with it. Personally, I find the Apple Store to be a pain in the ass. The online version makes me a clickaholic, and the IRL version is very confusing. Government sites are very different. I have no opinion on the new position. I don’t know the guy, and don’t use AirBnb. I just find that the insistence on making gov…

Why would I ever go to a Microsoft store? To buy a Windows CD?

It looks like I’m dreaming of a glorious past, but they seemed to sell XBox stuff.

Re: The National Design Studio is a scam

#40

Post by riehwvfbk »

titanomachy wrote: post #29

> President Trump’s appointment of AirBnB co-founder Joe Gebbia as “Chief Design Officer” of the United States is a sickening travesty Can we reserve words like “sickening” and “travesty” for things a little more serious than this? A war crime is a “sickening travesty”. This is, at worst, a pointless waste of resources.

When politicians of certain stripes wanted to spend money on renaming SF schools to atone for "past trauma" and canceling math because it's "not equitable" - that somehow wasn't a travesty. Spending some money on design is apparently the most evil thing imaginable though.

Thankfully the tiger moms of SF stood up for their kids and got the grifters kicked out. Let's stand up to lowbrow idiotic articles like this one too.

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