We're grown-ups and don't have to like each other to work together effectively.
However, I appreciate your being honest about arbitrarily changing the rules on me.
This times 1000. A working relationship is not a friendship nor does it require any particularly strong "rapport". Though the idea that there's no difference between a working relationship and being best buds is, I guess, not uncommon in SV---something to protest against the next time an experiment like this is run, I guess.
YC is much more of a "mentor+mentee" relationship than a regular "coworkers on a team" relationship. A mentor relationship is much less effective if there's no personal rapport between participants.
To put it another way, suppose the best advice YC can give is to focus on something other than pinboard (or something like that), would idlewords listen? Because if not, what's the point?
I can see this is disappointing for idlewords, but overall, this seemed fair and reasonably transparent to me.
I'm worried the overall outcome is that instead of being a fun and interesting experiment, it's going to be a 'bad and sad' in YC's minds, and any future contest is going to have a lawyer writing the rules.
So, here's to a clearer 'judge's decision is final' next time and that the three accepted applicants turn out successful.