MetaFilter posts tagged with matthowie

Kickstarter: Countdown to scam city?

Diablevert — Wed, 02 May 2012 16:03:00 -0800

Felix Salmon, the Reuters finance blogger, has raised a skeptical eyebrow at some of the latest success stories at Kickstarter (one, two). In a post yesterday pivoting off Kickstarter founder Yancey Strickler's appearance at the Wired con, he wonders: Is Kickstarter ripe for a big scam? Here's the nut of his argument:

Kickstarter has grown and evolved in ways that the founders didn’t necessarily anticipate, and they don’t want to put themselves in a gatekeeper role telling people what they can or can’t do….Except, as Kickstarter grows, it becomes less and less tenable for Kickstarter to retain that attitude. Yes, there are dodgy projects which don’t get funded. Call those the true negatives. There are also great projects which do get funded — the true positives. Put them together, and you have a very successful ecosystem. The ecosystem can also live quite happily with the false negatives, great projects which for whatever reason don’t manage to reach their funding goals. That’s the beauty of Kickstarter’s no-harm-no-foul system: if you don’t meet your goal, then no one is out of pocket. The problem is with the false positives — dodgy projects which do get funded. Statistically speaking, these things are certain to exist. Jason asked Strickler about some hypothetical crook who looked at the millions of dollars being raised by the likes of Pebble*, and hatched a scheme to simply defraud a lot of people out of their money, by putting up a glossy video for some sexy gadget, and then simply absconding with the money. How is Kickstarter addressing that risk? It seems, listening to Strickler, that the short answer is that it isn’t.

Kickstarter’s success stories have been mainstays of the main page of the blue for months [previously]. And even Salmon approvingly cites Amanda Palmer’s current project as an example of something the site does well. But the company has come under criticism as well. *The Pebble project is affiliated with Netscape founder Marc Andreessen and has collected over $7 million for its goal, to produce a e-ink watch.

Will she be mefi blue?

owillis — Wed, 08 Dec 2004 09:19:44 -0800

Haughey 2.0 Mefi user #1 will be reproducing. Hearty congratulations!

Best Christmas Destinations

MiguelCardoso — Mon, 08 Dec 2003 02:00:49 -0800

Where Would You Send Someone You Love For Christmas? If you had unlimited funds, what would be your Hannukah or Christmas present for someone you thought really deserved one? For instance, our genial host and the owner of MetaFilter, Matt Haughey. A lot of us are presently engaged in clubbing in to offer him a short visit to Iceland. y6y6y6 has even set up a website to solicit funds and suggestions, following enormous interest on MetaTalk. Well-known weblogs like boing boing and anildash are chipping in too. isn't it time we showed our appreciation? (Matt, please don't read or delete this!)

barkingmoose — Fri, 13 Jul 2001 20:40:07 -0800

Have James Hattori and CNN found the next "Gorgeous Guy"? I didn't see the story, but I'm guessing this nationally-televised appearance by our favorite celebrity earlier today was a precursor to a piece on tomorrow's edition of CNNdotCOM which will be presented as a sort of conditional mea culpa — because, hey, even the savviest among us can fall victim to "internet hoaxes". Better tune in.

Who IS that man

MarkBakalor — Mon, 09 Apr 2001 16:04:59 -0800

Who IS that man on the cover of Brill's Content this month!? A direct link to the cover image is here. Discuss! (I searched to see if this had been mentioned today and couldn't find any threads on it. Forgive me if I missed previous mentions...)

http://microsoft.sucks.my.metafilter.com

kokogiak — Wed, 21 Feb 2001 22:29:05 -0800

http://microsoft.sucks.my.metafilter.com I know it's self-referential, but I thought it was funny - I stumbled on this URL while doing a google search. Go on Matt, tell us how you really feel ;) - Also listed was "http://kottke-is-my-hero.metafilter.com" - sentiment as URL.

Is "Rushmore" the funniest movie of the 90's?

ethmar — Tue, 09 Jan 2001 07:04:30 -0800

Is "Rushmore" the funniest movie of the 90's? Matthowie thinks so, and kottke apparently does too. However, Eric Rapp sums up my thoughts exactly about the movie that may account for 2 hours of "lost time". Seen any other movies that people raved about but were completely lost on you?

deckard — Wed, 12 Jul 2000 19:13:13 -0800

Is there a reason mattl.com points to Metafilter, but www.mattl.com gives me a 500 error? Or am I just going crazy again?

Congratulations Matt and Kay!

CrazyUncleJoe — Sat, 20 May 2000 23:10:03 -0800

Congratulations Matt and Kay!

CrazyUncleJoe — Tue, 14 Mar 2000 11:15:01 -0800

Not Quite fast enough.
I sent the weblogbiosphere link to Matt's cellphone, so that he could include this important milestone in the sxswweblogpaneldiscussion, but he'd already turned it off. Oh well... so much for wireless contributions to the greater body of weblogknowledge.