Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Rides of Glory – Uber Blog (2012)

web.archive.org

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

51–60 of 116 posts

Re: Rides of Glory – Uber Blog (2012)

#51

Post by wldcordeiro »

mmcclure wrote: post #26

I gotta say, I'm not really seeing the creepy / cringey / evil / whatever-else here... Anyone (especially the HN crowd) should know they have the data, and if you think they're not carefully analyzing it behind the scenes (like every other tech company who has your data), I've got things to sell you. I personally think a tiny peek like this into the data, much like the usage posts that OKCupid, YouPorn, and others gi…

Yeah between this and the prostitution post I'm not seeing it either. To me it just looks like some interesting trends that occur in Uber's dataset.

Re: Rides of Glory – Uber Blog (2012)

#52

Post by gordon_freeman »

teacup50 wrote: post #49
mmcclure wrote: post #26

I gotta say, I'm not really seeing the creepy / cringey / evil / whatever-else here... Anyone (especially the HN crowd) should know they have the data, and if you think they're not carefully analyzing it behind the scenes (like every other tech company who has your data), I've got things to sell you. I personally think a tiny peek like this into the data, much like the usage posts that OKCupid, YouPorn, and others gi…

> Anyone (especially the HN crowd) should know they have the data, and if you think they're not carefully analyzing it behind the scenes (like every other tech company who has your data), I've got things to sell you. That's the creepy bit. Who owns that data? I want to live in a world where I own my data, and it can't be used for creepy purposes like this, or to extract additional value through arbitrage based on asy…

Well In this digital age, we do not own the data even if we are generating the data. So I would not go to extreme telling companies not to use my data for any purpose but I would definitely like some assurances from them not to use for such creepy and unnecessary means. Time and time again, we are seeing companies abusing our data be it Facebook for manipulating news feed for experimentation or Uber for such nonsensical studies.

Re: Rides of Glory – Uber Blog (2012)

#53

Post by wangarific »

physcab wrote: post #47
mmcclure wrote: post #26

I gotta say, I'm not really seeing the creepy / cringey / evil / whatever-else here... Anyone (especially the HN crowd) should know they have the data, and if you think they're not carefully analyzing it behind the scenes (like every other tech company who has your data), I've got things to sell you. I personally think a tiny peek like this into the data, much like the usage posts that OKCupid, YouPorn, and others gi…

There's a difference between this type of post and a post by OkCupid. OkCupid is a dating platform and their blog posts are net-positives for their users. What should I say in my first opening message? What do I wear in a picture to attract a mate? By contrast, it's simply not professional and reeks of juvenile behavior for Uber to be writing a post like this. Just because you have data and have these thoughts, doesn…

Feels to me like someone saw the success of OKCupid and their content marketing strategy and tried to shoehorn in something similar with whatever data they had with less than stellar results.

Re: Rides of Glory – Uber Blog (2012)

#55

Post by threeseed »

mmcclure wrote: post #26

I gotta say, I'm not really seeing the creepy / cringey / evil / whatever-else here... Anyone (especially the HN crowd) should know they have the data, and if you think they're not carefully analyzing it behind the scenes (like every other tech company who has your data), I've got things to sell you. I personally think a tiny peek like this into the data, much like the usage posts that OKCupid, YouPorn, and others gi…

Difference is OkCupid does it with class. Uber doesn't.

The more and more I hear about this company the more I am thankful we have heavily regulated taxis/cabs.

Re: Rides of Glory – Uber Blog (2012)

#56

Post by potatolicious »

meowface wrote: post #28
colinbartlett wrote: post #8

Is it sad that in the realm of Uber blunders I find this relatively tame?

Yeah, frankly this doesn't seem all that bad compared to some of the words coming out of executives' mouths. One could do an analysis like this while still working with anonymized data. Still a bit creepy, but not that different from reports and blog posts you see from other startups and tech companies.

Uber is suffering from a lack of credibility built up by by years of mild-to-moderate asshole behavior.

Nothing they've done so far, in isolation, are IMO worth the pitchforks being handed out in tech and mainstream consciousness right now, but taken as a whole it's pretty easy to see why people aren't willing to cut Uber any slack or give them the benefit of the doubt.

So yeah, this thing by itself isn't "that bad", but it's one piece of a large puzzle of Uber's misbehavior.

Re: Rides of Glory – Uber Blog (2012)

#57

Post by wodenokoto »

mmcclure wrote: post #26

I gotta say, I'm not really seeing the creepy / cringey / evil / whatever-else here... Anyone (especially the HN crowd) should know they have the data, and if you think they're not carefully analyzing it behind the scenes (like every other tech company who has your data), I've got things to sell you. I personally think a tiny peek like this into the data, much like the usage posts that OKCupid, YouPorn, and others gi…

I think the problem is context. Had uber been a really fun company, we would laugh at insights into our very being.

But since they are accused of trying to dig up dirt on people, this is a chilling reminder that they are more than capable of doing that, and apparently quite willing.

Re: Rides of Glory – Uber Blog (2012)

#58

Post by toyg »

TazeTSchnitzel wrote: post #27
nathanb wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sadly, it does. archive.org respect the robots.txt of the current website owner. This can mean that they have the data but choose not to give you access to them. I have seen cases in the past where a website I once frequented became defunct, then the domain expired, then someone parked a holding page on that domain including a robots.txt that keeps archive.org from displaying the old data (which do not even belong to…

The Internet Archive should implement some sort of digital signature system to allow website owners with foresight to prevent this.

They could just timestamp different versions of robots.txt (which they probably do already), and respect it depending on date (which is more of a hassle, because you have to build it in your UI logic).

Re: Rides of Glory – Uber Blog (2012)

#59

Post by leeber »

Comparing Uber to OKCupid is ridiculous.

OKCupid is a dating website which deliberately branded themselves as further on the "edgy" and "hookup" side of dating websites. Then you have POF somewhere in the middle, with eHarmony way on the other side, quite opposite of OKCupid.

I'm not sure why Uber would want to put themselves anywhere on that same scale (i.e. aligning your brand with notions of sex and one night stands). There's a time and a place for everything, and for edgy data analysis like this -- that "place" is edgy dating websites who want to be known for hooking up.

It's unprofessional and out of line with their brand image, obviously why the post got deleted. IMO this further validates all the bad press the media has been publishing about Uber.

Re: Rides of Glory – Uber Blog (2012)

#60

Post by zenogais »

simonster wrote: post #42
striking wrote: post #12

To me, it's not even the use of data per se that is most creepy about this post. Really, the tone of the essay seems to revel in "having 'fun' with user data," as if a sophomore at a university wrote it. I mean, I found the idea behind the post interesting: of course you can analyze trends in ridership to draw interesting conclusions. At the end of the day, however, it's a horrible idea to say "Hey, we know which of…

The author is Bradley Voytek ( http://darb.ketyov.com ), who is now a professor of neuroscience and should probably know better.

I've found a pretty high prevalence of stunted maturity in academia, so it's none too surprising.
Post reply on HN