

Making u-Deals work for everyone - sama
http://blog.loopt.com/2011/06/udealsupdate-2/

======
wangwei
I maybe downvoted to hell for speaking against a yc company. But I am going to
say it anyway because it's downright wrong.

Now that their dirty practice is out in the open. What do they do?

Oh, It's actually a bug in our software, and we'll fix it.

This is just way too dishonest.

In 2008, when users signed up for loopt, they sms/spam everyone from the
address book of users. When people complained about the spam, what do they do?

Oh, there's a bug in our user interface.

<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Loopt#SMS_invitation_issues>

If companies like Loopt succeed, it might give people the wrong idea that in
order to succeed, you need to adopt sketchy practices like what airbnb and
loopt have used. It doesn't matter if it's unethical or even illegal as long
as you benefit from it and get away with it.

This is just sad.

Now it might give people the wrong signal that in order to be accepted by
pg/YC, you need to be as sketchy/evil as Loopt or Airbnb founders

~~~
gburt
Your definition of ethics seems strange. If people don't like what they're
doing, they'll stop interacting with them. If they're lying about the bugs,
people will stop trusting their explanations (as you have), and evaluate them
accordingly.

They may be taking a risk by engaging in behavior like this, but its up to the
public to judge them. Within the context of this forum, I think seeing their
experiment and seeing how people react to it is tremendously valuable.

~~~
DarkShikari
_They may be taking a risk by engaging in behavior like this, but its up to
the public to judge them._

wangwei isn't a member of the public?

------
irahul
> Every single deal requires an opt-in from the business before it goes live.

So no more reverse groupon? Will you be working with business owners now
before offering a deal to users?

If that's the case, that seems like the right thing to do. But now, you would
be playing in the same space as groupon. Any differentiators planned or it
would be down to plain old competition in the same space?

~~~
underwater
I read "goes live" as "becomes redeemable".

------
stuntgoat
Captcha is not working on the page's comment engine. So I'll post here:

Have you considered an automated toll free number for businesses to opt in and
opt out? You know, to make it easy. Good Luck!

~~~
lachyg
How would they verify it really is the business?

------
jorkos
\- I'm running a deal on loopt technology; save 40 percent if we all buy a
piece. Don't worry, they condone this deal implicitly.

