Live data from Hacker News

Zillow forces McMansion Hell to delete posts

mcmansionhell.com

371–380 of 388 posts

Re: Zillow forces McMansion Hell to delete posts

#371
post #118

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And just because he's right doesn't mean court cases aren't expensive. I hope he either gets the attention he needs to raise some funds or gets noticed by someone willing to help him pro bono. It's a good concept for a site. On it's surface it looks down right like community service. It's a bit snarky here and there but, man, some of those houses invite that kind of criticism. I don't see him selling anything, just a…

She* :) https://twitter.com/mcmansionhell

oops, thanks. Thought I saw a picture of a "he" on the home page. Went to check again and it looks like the site is completely gone now, including this article. That didn't take long!

Re: Zillow forces McMansion Hell to delete posts

#372
post #364
post #329

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Are you saying that people shouldn't be allowed to criticize anything because it's all subjective and down to personal taste?

No, but I don't like it when people do in a very public manner as a way to pressure people to conform. How would you feel about a blog that openly criticizes workplace clothing (I bring this up as lots of people in my office wear things like toe shoes and some males even where quilts)? I try and be accepting of other people's personal tastes and don't want to enforce through rules/laws/social pressure some common clo…

I don't think it's meant to pressure the owners to confirm. The owners have a relatively small likelihood of ever realizing that their home is on the blog. I think it's to try to diminish the trend, and get builders to focus more on making smaller, higher quality houses that consider the climate in which they're built. Just my guess, though.

Re: Zillow forces McMansion Hell to delete posts

#373
post #218

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If they're living on the other side of the country, I don't care. If they're knocking down perfectly fine, correctly-scaled houses in my neighborhood in order to build huge monstrosities that parasitize the aesthetic niceness of the neighborhood that is due in large part to correctly-sized and shaped houses then I get upset. Example happening in my town: builder buys a normal-sized house on a large lot for $800K. Kno…

... how is that not being a NIMBY? You want fewer homes in your neighborhood (1 vs. 2 on a lot), on aesthetic grounds. What else did you think anyone meant by NIMBY?

What do you think NIMBY means?

The term originated to describe opposition to the placement of unpleasant developments that wouldn't be objected to if placed elsewhere (think landfill or meat-packing plant).

It now roughly refers to anyone opposing greater density in urban environments. (This is different enough, already, that we should probably coin a new word for it.)

You're using it to mean -- what? -- opposition to any development on aesthetic grounds?

We're pretty far afield, now.

Re: Zillow forces McMansion Hell to delete posts

#374

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Most of the McMansions around where I grew up in Northern Va. were fairly cookie cutter. Their lack of architectural unity seemed to be more of "We have X types of garages, Y types of base floorplans and Z types of entryways and so we'll just iterate on them for the whole neighborhood" This combined with the rapidly rising real-estate costs meant the builders threw in some of the architectural versions of Hofmeister…

> the architectural versions of Hofmeister kinks I'm going to add this to my list of words for names of things that you never expected to have names. From aglet[1] to uvula[2], and now Hofmeister kink. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aglet [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palatine_uvula

Maybe you'll appreciate Bangle Butt: the (usually chrome) strip across the trunk that modern cars have. It's named after the designer of the 2001 BMW 7 Series, Chris Bangle.

The design element was criticized so incessantly that Bangle eventually stepped down. But it turns out Bangle was just ahead of his time as most modern large sedans employ the eponymous chrome strip on their rear. The Accord, Camry, Mazda6, and Fusion all have the feature on their latest models.

Re: Zillow forces McMansion Hell to delete posts

#375

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> the architectural versions of Hofmeister kinks I'm going to add this to my list of words for names of things that you never expected to have names. From aglet[1] to uvula[2], and now Hofmeister kink. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aglet [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palatine_uvula

Maybe you'll appreciate Bangle Butt: the (usually chrome) strip across the trunk that modern cars have. It's named after the designer of the 2001 BMW 7 Series, Chris Bangle. The design element was criticized so incessantly that Bangle eventually stepped down. But it turns out Bangle was just ahead of his time as most modern large sedans employ the eponymous chrome strip on their rear. The Accord, Camry, Mazda6, and F…

While agree the Bangle Butt looks horrible, this does not refer to a chrome strip on the trunk of a car, it refers to the shape/proportions of the trunk and rear fenders/quarter panels on a specific set of BMW's: http://www.bmwblog.com/2015/01/21/bangle-butt/

Re: Zillow forces McMansion Hell to delete posts

#376
post #354
post #285

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> It has a feeling of "someone stuck on this extra part here, this stairwell here, ..." Isn't that practically one of the defining characteristics of Frank Lloyd Wright's houses?

I wouldn't really say so: https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/736x/3a/44/84/3a4484bdb... http://media.architecturaldigest.com/photos/56cb8425cd3bcb32... http://historylists.org/images/nathan-g-moore-house.jpg https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/7024761/El... https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/7025319/Pe... http://midcenturyhome.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/06/Frank-L...

Ah fair enough. I was thinking stuff like this: http://doclibrary.com/MSC146/IMG/ban-home4.jpg

https://imgs.6sqft.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/07/07115505/f...

http://media.architecturaldigest.com/photos/57571c84e8428148...

Re: Zillow forces McMansion Hell to delete posts

#378

Mirror of the site: https://web.archive.org/web/20170626201934/http://www.mcmans...

It's dead, they updated their robots.txt. I really wish archive.org wouldn't honor that.

especially not retroactively, didn't know they do that :(

Regardless, there's always another mirror somewhere else; nothing on the internet dies.

http://archive.is/GXxIc

Re: Zillow forces McMansion Hell to delete posts

#379
post #362

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Which case are you referring to? weev was convicted and sent to prison for violating the CFAA, based on his "unauthorized access" to AT&T's site (the limits of which are presumably defined by the ToS). His conviction was reversed on the technicality of improper venue, not the dubious nature of the conviction or the belief that ToS should not be eval'd into federal law.

I'm referring to the case where that woman posed as a high school student and drove a girl that her daughter didn't like to suicide via cyber bullying. They tried to charge her under the CFAA for violating Facebook's ToS against misrepresenting yourself. Edit: It was MySpace. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_v._Drew > United States v. Drew[1] is the final decision in a criminal case that charged Lori Drew…

Thanks for the reference. It's great that that the absurdity of the CFAA was reigned in on that case.

My understanding is that since this decision occurred at the district court level, it does not have a precedential effect, so I don't think anyone with a pending case can necessarily relax or assume that a similar outcome will be easily obtained.

Note also that in this case, a guilty verdict was entered for the defendant before being vacated by the district court almost a year later. If other CFAA cases have to go through the same process to get a similar outcome, that's better than nothing, but not really something to get excited about from the perspective of someone who has not yet been convicted.

Obviously I'm not privy to the details of weev's legal strategy, but this case didn't seem to help him either in preventing his conviction or in securing his exoneration. His conviction was overturned on unrelated grounds. Perhaps this would've been significant if the venue was not improper. (I haven't read the decision overturning weev's conviction, so it may discuss the applicability of this case regardless).

---

re the EFF's amicus brief, amicus briefs are an opportunity for the public to file their comments on the case for the court's consideration. They merely express the author's opinion and hold no value. The EFF opposes the CFAA as written as well as several other bad laws, but that's nothing new.

IANAL.

Re: Zillow forces McMansion Hell to delete posts

#380
post #324

Earlier quoted context omitted.

... how is that not being a NIMBY? You want fewer homes in your neighborhood (1 vs. 2 on a lot), on aesthetic grounds. What else did you think anyone meant by NIMBY?

I live in a 150-unit apartment building that houses about 300 people, on the edge of the neighborhood. I have no financial stake in the outcome either way, I just don't want to see something beautiful destroyed. I would much rather they put up another 150-unit building than tear down 75-100 houses to achieve the same outcome.

Okay, fair.

Usually it seems that people who are moderately opposed to two houses on a lot would be rioting in the streets over a 150-unit building. But I agree, it's a better way to achieve the same outcome.

Post reply on HN