Why is hackaday.com now activly promoting the SOAP project? - Page 1
Forum section: electronics / general

author: Smokey
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: June 12, 2014, 06:56:12 pm
content: Simple question.Some Timeline info...1)http://hackaday.com/2014/03/07/soap-the-home-automation-router-and-kickstarter-scam/Their initial article even included the word "scam"... So they were off to a good start... With evidence even.2)http://hackaday.com/2014/03/11/soap-drama-an-interview-with-the-soap-creators/The hackaday attitude is turning very SOAP positive, without any real reason to go that way. All they are working from is the word of the guys running the project. No real positive design evidence, with a TON of actual unsolved design flaws.3)http://hackaday.com/2014/06/11/soap-drama-another-go-at-crowdfunding/#comment-1567019Hackaday is now VERY pro-SOAP in this post, stating how the project is "something really cool". They are essentially pointing readers to the new campaign on ANOTHER crowd funding site. WTF? Just because at the end of the article they say that it started out shady and they made progress, that doesn't negate all the positive praise they gave above it.Are the hackaday editors really that terrible of writers that they can't see they are actively supporting the project with posts like that?

author: MatCat
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: June 12, 2014, 07:04:47 pm
content: Hackaday has really gone downhill lately, started just around the time they sold themselves...

author: Rasz
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: June 16, 2014, 10:37:20 pm
content: As you pointed out attitude changed after speaking with one of the scammers. Psychology 101, personal contact evokes sympathy and trustingness. This is classical Stockholm syndrome. Its hard to call someone a scammer (even real scammers) once he tells you his life story, shows off pictures of kids/dog, and makes a lot of promises.Basically Brian would feel bad to call them scammer at this point because he thinks he knows one of them personally (after speaking to them), he might not even realize it consciously.

author: Smokey
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: June 17, 2014, 12:13:36 am
content: Quote from: Rasz on June 16, 2014, 10:37:20 pmThe thing is, if you read through the comments on the second and third posts, the VAST majority of them are saying the same thing! Pretty much everyone is asking the same question, which is "WTF?" That's a pretty hard message to miss, and I know editors are reading at least some of the comments because staff posted a few replies.

author: Rasz
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: June 17, 2014, 04:28:04 am
content: Someone steals in the supermarket - a thief.Later you learn its your old Aunt. Oh she is just senile and harmless, she meant well, its not her fault. Why are you mean to her?http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Framing_(social_sciences)'dont drop the soap' scammers are now perceived by Brian as harmless idiots trying really hard to make something cool. Pointing out the fact they are practically stealing peoples money is too personal now. Brian is simply too nice to be objective

author: Smokey
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: June 20, 2014, 12:58:15 am
content: As pointed out in the other SOAP thread, there was a Wired article recently as well.http://www.wired.com/2014/06/router_tablet/Guess who Wired are using as a quoted source saying the SOAP project isn't a scam... Hackaday...

author: Smokey
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: November 27, 2014, 09:57:43 pm
content: I can't wait to see the spin hackaday tries to put on this now.

author: EEVblog
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: November 27, 2014, 10:34:51 pm
content: Quote from: Rasz on June 16, 2014, 10:37:20 pmThat happened to me with the Orsto smart watch scam.The owner didn't like all the negative talk about it on the forum here and contacted me with a bleeding heart story, "facts", and all sorts of other stuff to prove he was being mis-represented.Although there was still the faint whiff of BS, he sounded pretty darn genuine, and it made me at least give him the benefit of the doubt at the time (but I still didn't pull posts, or go and publicly defend him). Then I discovered that it was all BS and he had set up a fake account on the forum, and then he lied about it when confronted.

author: true
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: November 29, 2014, 01:28:18 am
content: Quote from: Rasz on June 17, 2014, 04:28:04 amBrian? Too nice? Are you sure you've got the right one? Because the one writing article is one rude, egoist insufferable prick.Don't have something nice to say, don't say it... bah...

author: Smokey
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: August 18, 2015, 06:48:57 pm
content: Where Are They Now: Terrible Kickstartershttp://hackaday.com/2015/08/14/where-are-they-now-terrible-kickstarters/That's an interesting take on SOAP. Let me rewrite the SOAP section to clarify their point..."After all this time hackaday is ready to admit that we screwed up promoting a project that we wanted to be real but had no actual evidence for, and we are really sorry. We realize that we should do a better job of understanding the technical details of things we post about so we can actually help people understand the sometimes complicated world of modern technology instead of misleading them. That is our responsibility as a tech news site and we dropped the ball with the SOAP stories. We, as a company, apologize to all the readers who wasted money based on the biased and uninformed opinions presented about SOAP by our editors. Everyone makes mistakes, and we will do our best moving forward to present retractions in a timely manner to minimize the impact of disseminating misinformation when it's shown we are wrong."