
Addressing Questions about the Salesforce $1 Million Hackathon - minimaxir
http://blogs.developerforce.com/developer-relations/2013/11/addressing-questions-about-the-salesforce-1-million-hackathon.html
======
eskimoroll
"We expected and encouraged teams to take advantage of existing APIs and
services they’ve written to create a great mobile app. "

That line upsets me. They absolutely did not encourage teams to take advantage
of existing services that they have previously written and pointing to one
random post on the developer forum as evidence of this is terrible. My team
and I read the official rules together several times before deciding that we
could not in good faith incorporate our existing product (including using our
own API to integrate features) into the mobile app we built for the hackathon.
The line "built from scratch" in the rules seemed clear to us but apparently
we were mistaken.

~~~
jamra
I would like to see people banding together to get refunds. It appears that
the competition was a sham.

The prize was a lot of money as well. That should set some alarms off when you
enter a 3 day competition.

~~~
colabi
I had a simpler idea. What if Microsoft or oracle just took over to finish
this thug. Most developers just want to show off what they did. Sales force
never even created a gallery for that

~~~
chadwickthebold
There's no incentive for them to do that. Why would another corp want to go
sticking their hands in this massive mess, possibly getting blowback from
either Salesforce or the hacking masses?

~~~
colabi
are you kidding? There could be no better roi. I don't even think a prize
would be necessary. People are angry for many reasons, not the least of which
is that no one got to see what they created. That just reduces everyone to a
seat filler for the promo videos

------
suprgeek
This is the blandest non-statement filled with lies:

\- "...any Salesforce customer or developer is likely to have a whole set of
existing customizations and logic that can be exposed to their mobile app via
REST API." \- Customization and Logic... can mean almost anything. How does
that reconcile with "from Scratch" as stated else where?

\- "Every eligible app entry was reviewed at least twice." Many Apps videos
have zero views & zero installs so this twice thing is a provable lie

\- "Once we complete our review of the final entries, we will post our
findings here"

Will you revoke the 1 Million prize given to an Ex-Salesforce architect who
had Demoed this app at a Meet-up 2 weeks before the Open of the Hackathon?

~~~
philthesong
The real horror is that they are trying to run another sham next year....

~~~
yyl
the whole event was sh- none of the employees knew solid information to tell
the hackers, sign-in deadlines were extended, etc etc. good lord, even the
food at the hackathon was appalling; i'm not a picky eater but i wouldn't even
give that food to a homeless person outside.

------
zaguios
This makes it sound like they're just straight up lying. It's been pointed out
several times that upshot was developed before the announcement of the
competition and multiple developers have analytics to prove their video/app
wasn't viewed once, let alone twice. They ignored all the questions/concerns
people had. I'm incredibly disappointed with this announcement and I did not
even participate in the hackathon.

~~~
minimaxir
This isn't the final call; it sounds like they are still investigating the top
5.

~~~
zaguios
I didn't get that impression, "all of the final 5 teams met the eligibility
requirements specified in the Official Rules". They did mention that they are
doing a more "in-depth" review, but they should have been immediately
disqualified by the fact that it's clearly stated you must start after October
25th.

~~~
colabi
They're stuck in a hard place and an internal investigation is probably
happening. This story will get worse before it gets better. I have a feeling
that the story that they gave their partners a pass on the rules has
credibility. Which means if they retract the 1st place, they get sued by them.
and they get sued for essentially fixing the competition. The easiest out they
didn't take. And it begs the question as to why

~~~
colabi
It got worse. healthcare.love was in the salesforce pocket too. Patrick Hoge
reported. He's doing a great job and is going to run down finding all
entrants. also, it's worth looking into 3rd 4th and 5th now.

~~~
forrealz
Who were the developers that have proof their app was never reviewed? I'd like
to talk to them and see the proof.

------
sswaner
As I watched Upshot's demo at Dreamforce it seemed hard to imagine that it was
something built in 3 days. The judges pointed out that the guys who presented
3rd and 5th (Upshot was 4th) had been there night and day, not sleeping.
Turian talked about how they had spent time walking around talking to people.
It seems that they likely had a complete or near-complete application before
they got to Dreamforce. Considering the news coming out now, it is a shame
that the guys who built great apps from start to finish this week didn't win.

~~~
daurnimator
You were allowed to start working oct 25

~~~
drakaal
They Demoed on October 5th. That is before the 25th. #notadoctorwhoepisode

~~~
daurnimator
I was replying to the parent comment's: "hard to imagine that it was something
built in 3 days"

==> You weeks to work on the entry.

The fact that Upshot's Team did theirs outside of the competition period
longer is a different issue.

------
drakaal
Which questions did they address? Doesn't seem like they said anything.

The comment that teams could use existing code, but not use products that were
already released or in development seems in conflict with the allegation that
the winning team demoed the product weeks before the contest started.

"Once we complete our review of the final entries, we will post our findings
here. " Is in conflict with the title... More like "Sometime when everyone has
forgotten we WILL BE addressing questions"

-Not a Dreamforce Participant.

~~~
jzwinck
What is the difference between existing code and an existing product made of
code, for the purpose of reusing code? The distinction (which I understand is
not your own creation) seems forced, if not ambiguous.

~~~
drakaal
Code doesn't come with a business model. A product does. Code doesn't come
with User Feedback and refinements based on real world testing. A Product
does.

~~~
yo-mf
Plenty of "products" also do not have a business model. So code posted on
Github that gets comments would be a product? Really sounds like you are
quibbling.

The statement about "existing code" was ambiguous for a reason...

~~~
colabi
unfortunately, they are also in a bind by stating that only the new work would
be judged. @aliciatweet cites that it looks like they webview'd their existing
site (would have to be verified). so, that means they judged using a webview
as a million dollar contribution? my guess is that the call happened in which
partners were allowed in with existing tech. and that information was never
passed to the judging team with specific reference as to work accomplished
within the hack period. possibly an innocent mistake or specifically designed
to pass people through.

------
dangero
My only surprise is that the winning team didn't keep their product quiet
beforehand and do a good acting job on how hard they had to work to get it
done within the deadline. A million dollar prize is very likely to create
controversy when there are loop holes and ambiguity in the rules and even if I
did get a head start, I would have wanted to avoid the chance of this type of
blowback.

------
nahname
The winners cheated and the business didn't follow their own rules. Sounds
like enterprise to me.

------
colabi
I'm establishing a fact timeline in a google doc. There is a first hand
account of a call between salesforce and partners that allowed them to bring
premade apps with the instructions that only contributions during the hack
would be considered. That info was not made public. It altered the rules
materially. Moreover that info was probably not disclosed to judges or the
initial team as it would have reduced the upshot app to a text field with Siri
to translate. Can someone else confirm?

------
sidcool
Does not sound convincing, given the gravity of the allegations made.

------
gailees
This is ridiculous -- many of my friends booked flights out just to compete in
this competition. Super disappointed in how it was run.

~~~
colabi
do you think you can ask your friends to add their videos to this list. we're
assembling all entries. this story isn't finished yet.
[http://list.ly/list/BOb-salesforce-1m-hackathon-the-real-
win...](http://list.ly/list/BOb-salesforce-1m-hackathon-the-real-
winner#item_330601)

------
yaroslavvb
Not sure where the controversy is coming from, given that admin clarification
from 11-14-2013 said, "You could modify an existing product to integrate with
Salesforce and submit that, however you'd be judged on just that component,
not the pre-existing product."

~~~
colabi
There are a lot of things wrong with that, not the least of which being that
you can't modify rules in obscure places. That changed participation. Why not
modify and notify the official rules. If they stuck in an obscure forum post
an hour before deadline that the winner had to sell their code to salesforce
for a dollar, would that still be a legal modification? That aside, they
knowingly or unknowingly did not pass the modification rule to the judges.

------
colabi
can anyone who entered the contest put their video here? besides just being an
awesome way for us to finally see the outcome of people's efforts, it's a real
practical way to keep track (since salesforce won't open the curtain).

[http://list.ly/list/BOb-salesforce-1m-hackathon-the-real-
win...](http://list.ly/list/BOb-salesforce-1m-hackathon-the-real-
winner#item_330601)

~~~
forrealz
All of the submissions are posted publicly here
[http://salesforce1million.challengepost.com/submissions](http://salesforce1million.challengepost.com/submissions)

------
pallandt
Random fact: you may know Turian, part of the winning team, by being the man
who used to have this impressive moustache:
[https://pbs.twimg.com/profile_images/1206193071/turian-
profi...](https://pbs.twimg.com/profile_images/1206193071/turian-profile-
think_about_it-800x1067.jpg)

I remember his writings or events that he was involved in have popped up on HN
several times in the past.

