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"a return to fact-based debate"

When was this fact-based debating era?

ecommercematton Show HN: LocalWiki, the open platform for local knowledge

Nextdoor sounds like it might be cool, but I don't know. It makes you put in a lot of information about yourself, including real name, real address, real email address, before asking for a credit card #, phone #, or to send you a post card and wait 3-5 days to verify your identify and before this is completed, you can't browse the site.

ecommercematton The Ronco Principle

"I'm not saying that if you sort investors by benevolence you've also sorted them by returns, but rather that if you do a scatterplot with benevolence on the x axis and returns on the y, you'd see a clear upward trend." PG/YC, have you tested this hypothesis? Precision would be difficult, but a back of the envelope attempt could be interesting and perhaps reveal unexpected correlations.

ecommercematton Why India outsourcing is doomed

I think this excerpt is representative of the content that woah (reasonably, in my estimation) found xenophobic:

"The author from Ukraine of all places probably wants soviet like discipline and work-ethic for USSR salaries? Yeah, ain't gonna happen comrade."

ecommercematton Wireless in Gaza: the young entrepreneurs beating the blockades

I didn't say that he was coming from a place of bigotry, in fact I said that he almost certainly wasn't. This isn't a technicality, it is explicit in the text of my comment. What I did was ask a question, which he never answered and I'll now ask you: can you understand why to some people particularly sensitive to anti-Jewish prejudice, this would make them a little bit uneasy? Please don't project a narrative we both disagree with onto me and the question and do me the courtesy of simply answering it.

ecommercematton Wireless in Gaza: the young entrepreneurs beating the blockades

You haven't done me the courtesy of answering my direct questions, which is a shame. Nonetheless, I'll answer yours. The term blockade itself without a modifier seems like the best term for it without going into details (you modified it twice in less than accurate ways: 1) labeling it as Israel's without mention Egypt's role in it and 2) calling it complete).

The restrictions on shipments of goods into and out of Gaza vary pretty regularly, which is the main reason I found that term to be an instance of editorializing rather than informing.

Since what can cross into and out of Gaza changes so frequently, is it only sometimes a complete blockade? When massive shipments are allowed in, would the blockade have exited its status as a "complete" blockade? Then what level of restriction needs to be met before it resumes its status as a "complete" blockade?

If you aren't aware of the varying policies, exceptions, and pretty regular massive shipments of goods allowed during the blockade, you should be able to find plenty of instances with minimal Googling.

Note that I'm not calling it a "mild blockade" or a "partial blockade" or anything like that and I might even call it a "restrictive blockade" or even "very restrictive blockade." I don't seek to minimize the blockade, just to accurately represent it.

ecommercematton Wireless in Gaza: the young entrepreneurs beating the blockades

I didn't "connect what you wrote with anti-semitism." I asked if you can understand how something you said could make some people uneasy because it resembles a narrative frequently used to malign them. You "just.." "won't respond to that," which is a shame.

While it might be "pretty useful to know," about the blockade, you weren't helpfully stating a fact that someone might not know in order to be "useful." Given the blockade's prominent role in the article (the word "blockade" is in the title and it occurs 3 other times throughout the article), you weren't informing anybody; you were editorializing. Why didn't you mention Egypt's role in the blockade in your comment, singling out Israel as the lone offender?

If someone were relying on your comment to learn about the situation as you seem to be suggesting was your intent, they would be under-informed about the major actors in the situation and perhaps misinformed about the nature and severity of the blockade. Your use of the term "complete" to describe the blockade ranges from subjective to incorrect, depending on one's perspective.

Is the conversation we're having ideal for HN? I don't think so, but I think it is the inevitable consequence of "talking about politics." Talking about politics is quite different than merely informing people of facts requisite for understanding a given situation, despite your attempts to conflate the two.

ecommercematton Wireless in Gaza: the young entrepreneurs beating the blockades

Without discussing politics, people with widely varying perspectives on Gaza understand that the present reality of life in Gaza poses extra challenges for those engaged in the inherently challenging pursuit of starting a startup.

To understand why "talking about politics" is harmful on this site, let's review this excerpt from your post:

"if you are not allowed to mention Israel's complete blockade of the Gaza Strip"

Hacker News isn't a good place for me to point out my many disagreements with your analysis, but to illustrate my point, I'll point out that: 1) the blockade isn't "complete," 2) Egypt also shares a border with Gaza and enforces a blockade, and 3) that making a claim that you're "not allowed to mention Israel's ____" is either an instance of, or (very probably) merely resembles, bigoted, anti-Jewish narratives about Jewish control of speech, the press, etc. I assume it just bears resemblance to bigotry, but can you understand why to some people particularly sensitive to anti-Jewish prejudice, this would make them a little bit uneasy?

"Why are talking about politics so bad?"

It isn't bad to talk about politics, but based on my feedback, do you see why your comments above lead to off-topic discussions for Hacker News?

You know what really offends me, though? That damn auto-playing ad on the article!

ecommercematton Sprout

Initially, I tried to see how stereotypes about blondes related to what you were saying and then I realized you meant "blind people."

ecommercematton The story of the bikemaker from Israel,hand-building bikes for the rest of world

I'm not trying to be incendiary and I'm left wondering why I'm receiving the downvotes. PG has made public statements pertaining to this issue but I'm not sure I understand his point of view. I was simply seeking clarification.

ecommercematton The story of the bikemaker from Israel,hand-building bikes for the rest of world

A few months back, PG tweeted:

https://twitter.com/paulg/status/500161965881188354 Desmond Tutu: My Plea to the People of Israel. http://bit.ly/XlQ5YZ

In the link, Desmond Tutu calls for a boycott of Israel.

Later that same day, he tweeted:

https://twitter.com/paulg/status/500300735481774082 When Desmond Tutu is on one side of an issue and Sean Hannity is on the other, how much more do you need to know?

Presumably, PG thinks nobody should buy bicycles made by this craftsman. PG, am I correct?

ecommercematton What Languages Fix

I noticed a typo:

C: Assemby language is too low-level.

ecommercematton George W. Bush is smarter than you

"Bush attended public schools in Midland, Texas until the family moved to Houston after he completed seventh grade. He then went to The Kinkaid School, a prep school in Houston, for two years."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_W._Bush#Childhood_to_mid...

ecommercematton Show HN: Landing page for socializing weddings

This strikes me as spammy.

ecommercematton Matt Cutts: One of the more fun gadgets I've been playing with lately…

Interesting that this works with Blackberry and not iOS devices. Is this because the app store specifically rejected their app? If so, why?

ecommercematton Why Siri just might work

Does anybody know where Siri gets its local search results from? The independent version of the app has been pulled from the App Store, and the only "answers" I can find to my question online are low quality. If they somehow manage to produce good results, they'll stand with Google Places as one of only two generally reliable local search resources.

If somebody has some insight on this, and they'd be willing to discuss it in greater detail or at greater length than would be suitable in an HN post, please contact me (see my profile).

ecommercematton Stripe: instant payment processing for developers

How do you handle situations in which you can't tell if someone is legitimately undergoing hyper-growth or committing fraud? In a prior startup, I had my funds held indefinitely by PayPal and 3 separate merchant banks because our rapid growth made them suspect us of fraud or perhaps that our business was just too risky because our numbers were changing so rapidly. Our ultimate solution was to engage a merchant bank that specialized in sight-unseen, no swipe/no sig transactions that we could meet with face-to-face.

ecommercematton [dead]

http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1851864

I wrote "This "article" is misleading. The video which this link-bait inaccurately describes states "they visited Steve Jobs just to meet him because he was a hero of theirs and they said to John Doerr after the meeting 'Why can't he be our CEO?'" (The section of the video pertaining to the CEO hiring starts around the 24 minute mark.) The video makes it seem as if that question was basically a joke and also that it wasn't ever directly posed to Steve Jobs. I resent being lied to by the puff piece, but it is interesting to think about how such an outcome would have changed things (bmelton's thoughts being an example)." when a slightly LESS misleading version of this submission was posted some months back.

I'm disappointed to see this has received 20 upvotes at HN. It has no citations, and it is obviously full of bunk.

ecommercematton Startup Tools

The link appears to be broken now.

ecommercematton The day Google founders asked Steve Jobs to be CEO

This "article" is misleading. The video which this link-bait inaccurately describes states "they visited Steve Jobs just to meet him because he was a hero of theirs and they said to John Doerr after the meeting 'Why can't he be our CEO?'" (The section of the video pertaining to the CEO hiring starts around the 24 minute mark.)

The video makes it seem as if that question was basically a joke and also that it wasn't ever directly posed to Steve Jobs. I resent being lied to by the puff piece, but it is interesting to think about how such an outcome would have changed things (bmelton's thoughts being an example).

ecommercematton [dead]

Just in from Facebook: We will more accurately represent our user data in the future. This kind of exaggeration is Finnish.

ecommercematton What-aboutery

I wasn't trolling. I was just pointing out that it seems like a subjective distinction as a practical matter and asking if there was a way to make it less subjective in the context of online comments, argument rebuttals, etc.

ecommercematton What-aboutery

How does one differentiate "deflection-style 'what about' arguments" from valid "what about" arguments free from bias?

ecommercematton Ask HN: Feedback Please - TapInko.com

Good concept, and an impressive, if glitchy implementation. When I switched tabs in my browser and came back later, it reloaded the home page, rather than displaying where I left off.

Also, you misspelled "Worcester" in the description of "The Towers" at Worcester Polytechnic Institute in Massachusetts.

ecommercematton Amazon to no longer pay for paid search referrals

Does this impact, say, bloggers who review books and provide a unique URL for purchasing that book on Amazon on their blog?

ecommercematton Ask HN: What Paid Services Do You Use For Your Startup?

Ditto. I'm interested as well. I gather that existing customers can send a referral code that, when used, gives the referrer and the referee each a $25 credit (which negates the activation fee). Please be in touch if you're willing/able to refer me. Thanks.

ecommercematton Ask HN: What Paid Services Do You Use For Your Startup?

What services do you pay for that are non-technical? Lawyers, Accountants, Copywriters, Consultants of various stripes? Anything recurring?

ecommercematton Offer HN: We do your accounting, You help us prove startup concept

True dat. You're describing what we're looking to work towards. Manual statement uploads are still a lot easier than manual line-by-line transcription. We're able to accept any format (natively digital or scanned), though, which means that very little effort is required on your part.

ecommercematton Offer HN: We do your accounting, You help us prove startup concept

Yes, the small list of docs is the key. We're asking for statements, etc., not data entry on your part.

ecommercematton Offer HN: We do your accounting, You help us prove startup concept

Good point. Changing accountants is a big deal. In fact, one of the goals of this potential startup is to make it a much smaller deal. Nonetheless, we're not necessarily looking for someone to change their accountant with this exercise. What we want to do is test our process with some startups, and in return, we'll provide them with a new (and hopefully valuable) perspective on their finances.

That being said, we're open to any ideas, and when we speak with the startups we might be doing this for, we'd be happy to discuss any possible arrangements in terms of duration, etc.