skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
There are far too many of us on the site for YC to help each and every one of us. That's what the YC admissions process is for: to cut the numbers down to a manageable group.

Speaking as a YC reject, I'd rather they limit the numbers and keep the quality up. PG et al aren't doing anyone any good if they "help" all 400 admitted startups but their help consists of a 3 sentence e-mail every month.

Also, they may owe their institutional success to "us", with "us" being the class of entrepreneurs, but they don't owe their success to any individual one of "us". I, for example, have done nothing to help YCombinator become successful except spending lots of time on Reddit, and there're thousands of other people who could make that claim.
Justin.TV's Alexa rankings have been tanking, to the point where ustream.tv has almost overtaken them:

http://alexa.com/data/details/traffic_details?url=justin.tv

Granted, that's just Alexa, and Compete.com still shows justin.tv growing healthily (though ustream's growth rate is higher). But still...were I justin.tv, I'd be concerned.
Good suggestions but let me play devil's advocate (a lame one).

1. I am participating in thread A and get downmodded in another thread, and I write a message and see "please wait x minutes." It is trivially easy to cripple my participation ability this way. Of course, 3 and 4 are remeedies for this.

2. some replies warrant quick replies. A. blah. B. source? C. source of blah. The other thing is, all I need to do is post everything I want to post in succession, and check back later. That's actually what I do here; it's more efficient.

3. I think this is a good idea and should be a priority consideration. But there are multitudes of ways of doing this. To KIS, consider allotting downmodding points by number of upmodding points. You would need to find a happy ratio first, though; pg might have enough data to do this. sum upmod vs sum downmod. Say it's 12:1. Then maybe give one downmod point for 10 upmod points. This stops random downmodding just by controlling scarcity. But this does not stop trolls from posting. Of course when you have a whole upmod/downmod economy set up, you can then implement tresholding... and then here and there, and you have slashdot/reddit/digg all over.

4. I am hesitant on this idea. A troll can enter jibberish and you have useless data. On the flipside it prevents mistakenly downmodding.
Gee, this reminds me of the time when I showed to a friend a stop motion clay animation I had painstakingly made. The man played it in fast forward. I didn't stay for his comments.

Check out the reviews at amazon.com: both PG and some Peter Norvig give you permission to read it:

http://www.amazon.com/Structure-Interpretation-Computer-Programs-Engineering/dp/0262510871/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1/103-7486399-1082204?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1179281225&sr=8-1

Or yes, you can choose to postpone the important for the urgent. But for your deity of choice's sake, don't multitask at this. Whenever you think you're ready, get a paper copy and set aside some time for it every day. Kiss the cover. Open the book. Read at least one subsection and do the exercises. Close the book and kiss the cover again. Candles optional.
http://news.ycombinator.com/comments?id=20301

I think the users of this site would be interested in $250,000 worth of Skittles. Don't you like candy?
There are too many variables for me to evaluate your statements based on pure logic. If I could simply reason my way to a successful business plan I wouldn't need advice. I need a scientific basis, which involves experimenting and recording results. This is not a cult of personality; it's a cult of results.
I believe those would be the exception to the rules. They are already very successful. We all know how many VC funded companies actually make it to the Digg/Facebook level...very very few. If VC's were giving the majority of the companies they funded $200k salaries those VC's wouldnt be in business very long.
YC reject ourdoings.com navigation overhaul -- big improvement?
If he gets rich, they won't call it "arrogance". People would call Steve Jobs arrogant (based on his public statements) if he weren't so damn successful.
I have another iminlikewithyou invite to reward good feedback, or you can just do it for karma.

Please go through the demo and see if it's easier now than last time I asked for feedback.

I've also added an ad-supported option. There may be kinks. Please try it.

This site is implemented with Scheme as the language and Java as the platform. I use PostgreSQL 8.1. I'm curious as to who else has any of these elements in common.

With Paul Buchheit inquiring about how to simplify upload of image files, I'm concerned that some tough competition in the "amazingly simple photo sharing" space may be on the horizon. Any feedback would be super helpful.

http://ourdoings.com/
http://ourdoings.com/whatnext.html - Error Argument to 'cdr' has wrong type
I've got a laptop with a built-in 3G modem. It's cool, but the data plan makes it too expensive to use.

FWIW, most companies will throw in a laptop card if you sign a contract for a multi-year data plan
Business does not equal mastery. if you complain about MBA BS then it should be obvious enough. The iPod was nothing new in terms of technical mastery. But it was innovative in terms of interface design, and a damn good example of successful marketing and integration into a whole product family; as such, it's also an innovation of process.

But does an iPod engineer understand any AI? Probably not. Steve Jobs made stupid comments in his presentations (still remember the "branch prediction... it predicts branches!"). But he has an eye for opportunities that not even your professor can boast having. If there's a market, and you know what it takes to supply it, supply it. In my view, YC is addressing this; it may saturate quickly, but the need obviously exists. If your expertise targets the extremely educated, by all means make something that satisfies them.

But don't forget that there are a lot of people to please. Just please the ones you understand, or think you do. I'm completely taken aback by twitter's success, but hey, people use it, what can I say.
I only see unwarranted 'clubbiness' in the negative spaces- that is, in the supplicant/resented attitude of a minority of the people that didn't make the filter. I'm sure most of you understand that there is no room for all, and that the YCombinator folks are not taking anything from you by making others happy.

It's not like pg is rubbing it in your face either. He even went out of his way to write an it's-not-you-it's-me essay, to prevent applicants from taking the rejection personally.
Personally, I would have very much appreciated a one or two-sentence personalized response to my rejected application. It can't be that hard to build that into the system, and although I have a decent guess as to why you didn't choose to fund my partner and I, a boilerplate rejection seemed kind of mean (even thought it was a very humble boilerplate rejection)...
Just a quick list of impressions on seeing the site, don't want to sound really negative, just trying to convey my thoughts quickly.

No direct login on front page.
Front page is very busy. I would put the "ourdoings" image at the top, and drop the "ourdoings.com" title. Its just a lot of raw data.
Don't really care for the use of hyperlinks on the frontpage.
Seems like it is pushing pricing a bit too early, I don't know anything about your product, and you are talking to me about money, I feel insecure ;)
Need backwards links, for example on registration page I want to go to your front, but it has no link to do so.
As noted above. Front page - Tutorial - Edit leads to a crash.

I assume you are using SISC scheme on top of the JVM, which seems fairly reasonable, but I'd take a quick look at liftweb.net , which is a pretty pleasant scala web development environment (it isn't Lisp or Scheme, but I think Scala is pretty decent to look at (once you get over typing functions...), and being able to grab Java libraries is pretty handy, although SISC is giving you that too, the Scala syntax for doing it is dead simple).
The anti-aliasing is ugly... you should redo the graphic design with different anti-aliasing settings.
Oh he actually wrote a "it's-not-you-it's-me essay", I actually didn't think he was arrogant, until you mentioned that. If that is true, then he really is arrogant.
Here's an idea that may or may not have unintended consequences - I haven't thought about it long enough yet...

For every down-vote a comment receives, give some fraction of an up-vote to that comment's parent.

The idea is that, even if someone is rude and doesn't care about their own karma, if they are sufficiently rude they will actually wind up helping the person that they insult.
Here is nice article on the reality of advertising as your b-model:

http://radar.oreilly.com/archives/2007/03/the_economics_o_3.html
List of Web 2.0 Acquisition Prices
My mistake. I agree, $200k is way too much for a startup founder salary.
Chart: Percentage of a Company You Own vs. Acquisition Price
the biggest expense is hiring. senior level people in the valley are not going to work for less than $100K unless they are getting 20% of the company, which they aren't. the reason why VCs invest $7M into series A rounds is BECAUSE they need to pay everyone high salaries.

note: I'm not saying this is what SHOULD happen, nor am I saying paying six figure salaries is a good strategy. It is just what happens. There are thousands of ersatz executive types in Silicon Valley who have made a career out of bouncing around between overpaid "VP" positions at startups that eventually run out of money and fade away.
Yes, but your comment was interesting and insightful, so it doesn't count. :)
This is a very important problem, and definitely worth working on. When do you plan to launch?
I got the following error:

Error
Argument to 'cdr' has wrong type

Additional debugging info: (more...)

Tue May 15 23:44:32 CDT 2007

Argument to 'cdr' has wrong type
at gnu.expr.GenericProc.applyN(GenericProc.java:72)
at gnu.mapping.ProcedureN.apply1(ProcedureN.java:29)
at atInteractiveLevel$frame.lambda1info(Unknown Source)
at atInteractiveLevel$frame.apply1(Unknown Source)
at gnu.expr.ModuleMethod.apply1(ModuleMethod.java:85)
at atEvalLevel.lambda1(/usr/local/jetty-6.1.3/webapps/bigsite/WEB-INF/tpl/whatnext.html:1)
at atEvalLevel.apply1(/usr/local/jetty-6.1.3/webapps/bigsite/WEB-INF/tpl/whatnext.html)
at gnu.expr.ModuleMethod.apply1(ModuleMethod.java:85)
at gnu.brl.progfun$frame1.lambda3(progfun.scm:276)
at gnu.brl.progfun$frame1.apply1(progfun.scm)
at gnu.expr.ModuleMethod.apply1(ModuleMethod.java:85)
at kawa.standard.callcc.apply(callcc.java:19)
at kawa.standard.callcc.apply1(callcc.java:44)
at gnu.brl.progfun$frame0.lambda2(progfun.scm:272)
at gnu.brl.progfun$frame0.apply1(progfun.scm)
at gnu.expr.ModuleMethod.apply1(ModuleMethod.java:85)
at kawa.standard.call_with_output_string.apply1(call_with_output_string.java:10)
at gnu.brl.progfun.brlResult(progfun.scm:269)

brl servlet 2.2.2pre
Sometimes subtle ideas are very powerful. The "troll whisperer" was something I hadn't previously considered.

The Wufoo's have another simple but apparently powerful idea -- on their blog, they prefill the comment box with "everyone needs a hug", or something like that.
NBC Jumps on the MySpace Bandwagon
19 Instant Messaging Startups (that Kevin Rose is facing off against)
That puts me in an inferior position to the VCs, and basically implies that I should be happy with whatever I can get. I reject that premise.
I agree with avoiding complicated negotiations, which is why I'm fine with debt, but only if it is capped at a reasonable valuation.

Consider these two possible series-A investments:

- Sequoia at a $5M pre

- Some lame VC at a $15M pre

As a seed investor, I would probably prefer Sequoia (obviously the other details matter, but on average), meaning that if they went with the lame VC I would get double-hurt with uncapped debt (I get a smaller percentage of a company that has a smaller chance of success).
Oops.. I was aiming for the cliche about the girl trying not to hurt her boyfriend when breaking up.

FWIW, this is the essay. Forget about my broken metaphor and just judge for yourself

http://www.paulgraham.com/judgement.html
I think nostrademons got it spot-on: Avoid public statements about how great YC is

It is true, YC offers a great value. In my opinion, YC increases the expected return of a startup by 2-10x. But let others sing YC's praises - it will sound a lot better than if it's coming from the principals.

For example, this:

"Angels and VCs who don't go to this are missing some of the best innovations," says Ron Conway, the Valley's most celebrated angel investor.

Sounds a lot better than this:

When Graham calls the winners, the founders have only five minutes to accept. "If people turn us down," he says, "as far as we're concerned they've failed an IQ test."

Here's some other suggestions:

1: Like nostrademons already said, data that seems objective is good. Here's a test to find out if YC really does increase the expected return of startups by 2-10x: compare the stats (values if they're available, or maybe just alexa web traffic) of top 2n applicants from previous funding rounds (where n is the number funded in that round). I bet 90% of the most successful ones were YC funded.

If readers object to your sample selection, then use the entire population of applicants. My guess is that the majority of successful ones will still be those that were YC funded.

2: As an introvert (which I expect many of us are), I have had to come up with rules for social interaction. One is to ALWAYS credit others for my success. Nobody likes to hear "I'm so successful because of ME, and If you don't think so, you have a low IQ"

In YC's situation, you might consider spending more time stressing that YC's success is a function of the teams YC invests in, and even the support of the community that surrounds YC. Focus on how those around YC have played a part and its success.

2. News.YC, the Startup School, and Founders at Work were great steps forwards in that regard

These projects are very inclusive, and YC is being very generous by running them. Spend more time stressing these projects, instead of events that might appear more "clubby." For example, instead of talking about the attendees of founder dinners, talk about the fantastic speakers you got at the last startup school, and then mention that it's an event hosted for free by YC.

Maybe the founder's program was the focus of the article - and the writer wasn't interested in Startup School. In that case, when you talk about the founder dinners - stress that you cook them yourself. That's the kind of stuff people like to hear about.
'... 8020 bought JPG from Heather and I for a modest sum ...'

This bit caught my eye. I wonder what the condition of sale was? At this stage I would have either kept the 2/3 partnership (assuming equal and maintain control) or completely sold out making the ownership clear. You can't have it both ways. Selling out brings its own set of problems.

'... It would have been in the author's interest to not reveal it at all online ...'

I tend to agree with their thinking in telling their story. JPG was an public online community. Exposing problems in the open, certainly gives fair notice to the community who for all intensive purposes helped create it. In the end some story is going to be told. It may as well come from someone from the inside even with the possibility of legal action.
I found no place for bug reports, so I'll abuse this thread instead.

I tried to write 'cliché' (cliche with acute accent) and it appeared garbled in the forum. Some problem with unicode?

I have found out you can use escape characters here: clich&eacute; - cliché. I don't know if you intend this.

Some tests:

´a - á

´e - é

´i - í­

´o - ó

´u - ú

^a - â

^e - ê

^o - ô

~a - ã

~o - õ

~n - ñ

¨i - ï

¨o - ö

¨u - ü

thorn - þ

eth - ð

,c - ç

Some tests of random html:

bold
italics
This Is A Big Header!

This may or may not show up between horizontal lines.

This is separated by nonbreaking spaces.
Funny; when I edited the parent comment, the confirmation page showed the correct characters. When I went back to the thread view, the chars were garbled again.

A test of unescaped angle braces:
Usage: foo

If you fix this and you want me to retest the funky chars after that, just let me know: <my username here> at yahoo dot com.
Oops.. sorry for the repost; I should have imagined that abusing a feature request thread for bug reports was not much more original than the converse. :P
That would lead to people creating sockpuppet accounts with which to flame themselves. (Admittedly, I would find this amusing.)
Harj I'm a little confused. If you're someone that YC has invested in, why do you have so much spare time to argue with this guy? His tantrums aren't very childish and I think you're showing your lack of maturity by not presenting any general arguments. You clearly aren't valuing your time very highly either - you're just being hypocritical.
Plans seem pricey. What about using Amazon S3, and marking up what they charge by 50%? This will reduce your prices (and costs) significantly.

My other immediate question is, how are you different than SmugMug? SmugMug costs less than your "Gold" plan, and seems to offer more features / space.

For those that don't want to pay, flickr offers to host 200 high-res photos, how does this compare to bronze / free plans?

I understand the differences you've outlined on http://ourdoings.com/about.html - but it seems that competing services offer most of this as well.

Find what differentiates your service, and focus on that.
not suggesting you are inferior to vcs.. let me rephrase.

If you had the opportunity to invest in a seed round, and they were only willing to accept financing in the form of convertible debt with no cap on valuation, would you reject that opportunity 100% of the time? (Acknowledging a cap is superior from an investor perspective).

And if so, are you not concerned about losing opportunity to invest in the series A (assuming you love the idea)? Not because VCs are superior, just based on there potentially being greater competition come Series A. Bird in hand so to speak?

In essence, I am asking if this is an absolute position from your perspective or are there not scenarios where a convertible debt investment with no cap could be interesting?
I think #4 would be counterproductive. Downmods are harmless, and serve as a relief valve of sorts. Flames are anything but harmless. When you raise the barrier to downmodding, you make the flaming alternative more attractive.

In the same spirit: right now, no down-arrow is available for replies to your own posts. I think a better alternative would be to make the down-arrow available but have it only influence comment score and not karma.
I've posted one techcrunch comment and one comment here disagreeing with him. That's a combined total of about 10 minutes of my time which in my view is justified use of it, as it was time spent defending an organization that has done nothing but provide me with a stream of endless opportunity.
It could be a more intuitive way of collaborating.
Right now I am running my idea up against the netflix prize dataset to explore it more and prove it out. I would really like to find a co-founder to launch with.
That's a really good point. You reap what you sow, and the Wufoos sow lots of goodwill and good humor, and that's what they get in return (generally). There's a lot of that kind of thing on their sites ("dinosaur buddy", "like a champ", etc.).

I've been trying to start thinking like that in all of my interactions with customers and users of our Open Source products. People take just about everything, even bad news or criticism, better if it is from a friend.
Guy Kawasaki writes fantastic books, and I hope to meet him one of these days. But, I won't be visiting Truemors again.
Kawasaki needs to re-read his own book on starting up... he made a ton on mistakes with this one.

PS: The idea itself is quite silly too... voting on rumors?! What is a vote suppose to do? Increase the likelihood of something being true? Problem with rumors is that only few people have the inside knowledge and you don't know who. By allowing those who don't know for sure to vote, those who are not stakeholders, the signal to noise ratio becomes quite low. The best predictor of rumors is a market-based model (full of insiders/stakeholders) or your own network of trusted sources (the traditional journalistic model).
Does it run the risk of hiding too much of what actual coding entails?

Put another way: Many developers look down on Visual Basic because it made certain things easy and other (arguably more important) things near impossible, creating (so the argument goes) a group of coders who didn't, and never would, understand programming in any meaningful sense.

I don't think I've ever heard anyone praise VB as a good way to get people interested in "real" coding.

Does ease of use, and quick results in a limited domain, really act as a gateway to sophisticated programming?

I suspect the trick is to make it hackable in an interesting way, so that those with some motivation have a natural path to go learn how computational systems work when the default interface become too limiting. (VB was always usable enough that few people felt the need to go learn C or C++ whatever to accomplish things, so it was easy for people to be satisfied.)
BBC NEWS | Business | Microsoft's Vista sales power up
I see you use verticalresponse.com for your mailing list. I don't get the pricing structure - do you pay per email to one subscriber or do you pay per email to ALL subscribers?

And are their services worth it at all when email marketing is more of a side thing?
I'd like to think that the real reason for the site has nothing to do with its stated purpose.

For example, collecting IP addresses or traffic patterns or vote clustering or word frequencies, I don't know, something. And the collected data is what has the actual value.

But really I think it was a case of someone hearing a "cool" neologism ("Dude; it's like, a rumor, but true!") and deciding to base a business plan on it.
I posted the following comment in defense of my co-founder Wayne:

Jay,

It is supremely unfair of you to characterize my co-founder as irresponsible, selfish, and ruining his family.

I have never met a man who loves his wife more than Wayne. He and his wife reached a decision together that the best thing for their family and their future was for him to come start a company. Your post makes it sound as if he snuck over the fence in the middle of the night.

It is one thing to attack a business, or even to attack the visible leader of said business. But to slander a good hard working father, husband, and friend is criminal. You owe him a public apology.

Sincerely,
Robby Walker

EDIT: it appears he listened - the language has been softened a bit and he apologized.
Where is Silicon Valley? - A Rare Useful Post From Valleywag
Wordpress to Celebrate 1 millionth blog
Paul and Paul, Robert, Jessica (and whoever else) ... I dont see any of you helping any of us (those not in the club).

If you're going to demand that the principals of YC help you, you might start by getting their names right ;). They are (ordered by last name) Trevor, Paul, Jessica and Robert. I think you might be confusing YEurope (that also has a Paul) with YC.

Realistically, I don't think you can expect them to help us on an individual basis. They would receive no benefit from doing so, and it would just detract their time from the focus of YC.