

The Hackaday Prize - dbh937
http://hackaday.io/prize/

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darsham
A lot of people were afraid that HAD would go downhill after being taken over
by SupplyFrame[0]. I find all the initiatives they've taken so far were pretty
good and this space prize sums it up pretty well.

[0] [http://hackaday.com/2013/07/25/hello-from-
supplyframe/](http://hackaday.com/2013/07/25/hello-from-supplyframe/)

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szczys
I'm glad that this has become obvious. From my own experience, it is a
wonderful fit. SupplyFrame doesn't shy away from Hacking (we're taking back
that term to have a positive connotation). And they align with Hackaday's
values of Open Hardware and Open Source Software.

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eggbrain
The one thing that worries me about this is that since the prize is so
amazing, it might encourage "cheating" if you will. If you remember the
Salesforce hackathon controversy[1], the winner of the 1 million dollar prize
received a good amount of criticism since the winner was a former Salesforce
VP and some of the code existed before the hackathon took place.

Even if the Salesforce hackathon rules didn't strictly disallow pre-existing
code, a lot of participants came away feeling bitter, as they had put a lot of
effort into their code in the given timeframe and felt like they could never
have won if their code was compared to code that might have existed for months
or more.

I know they want to encourage people to hack on more things, and the prize
should not be the goal -- it should be building cool shit and sharing/talking
about it. But I know I'd be nervous investing so much energy into building
something, documenting it, and polishing it if someone working on a project
for a few years decides to submit it and blows everyone away. Hope that's not
too negative -- I just want people to walk away from the event willing to
build more cool stuff, not feeling bitter :)

[1][http://www.zdnet.com/salesforce-com-tries-to-clear-the-
air-o...](http://www.zdnet.com/salesforce-com-tries-to-clear-the-air-over-
hackathon-controversy-7000023846/)

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gamerdonkey
I certainly understand the concern, but I think the timeframe of this contest
will serve to mitigate the problem. Three months is, in my opinion, long
enough for a motivated participant to come up with an entry that could easily
compete with a multi-year project.

Additionally, the openness encouraged by the competition (as a judging
criteria) will allow the community time to scrutinize entries and call out any
that appear to be 'cheating'.

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jessaustin
Interesting attempt to jump-start a social network. More tasteful than web
ads. Good luck!

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mberggren
Jump start?

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bsilvereagle
HaD recently launched hackaday.io, a place for people to document and discuss
their hardware projects. One of the conditions of winning the prize is using
hackaday.io to document everything.

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tdicola
Neat contest, but paying taxes on the top price (worth $200k) is going to be
insane. You're looking at at least $50k in taxes, and more depending on state.
I seriously doubt many people would be able to afford to win the prize.

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kodisha
From a YT comments: honestly, as cool as going to space sounds, id take the
cash.﻿

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baby
I don't understand how you could choose cash over space.

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lnanek2
What is the space trip going to be? Sitting in a chair, looking out a
porthole, seeing the sky darken to stars, maybe being allowed to get up and
experience microgravity the same as various amusement park rides or the vomit
commit wave flying plane, then sitting in your seat for the ride back down.
Pretty worthless, honestly. About the same as a day at the amusement park with
a higher chance of death. Money instead might let you start a business and
change the world, or code your own thing instead of coding what a boss tells
you for several years.

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goldenkey
I don't think I'd want to be one of the first to use experimental vessels...

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szczys
Haven't the carriers already been selling tickets for years? I would image you
won't be the first to sit that seat. But you will still be considered an early
adopter of civilian space travel!

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benjamind
Who's going to be first to enter and what are you going to build?

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junmin
支持Hackaday！

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recycle
SPACE!

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bilke
Jupiter and Beyond !

