There's something about 500.co and it's members which makes me think of them as a totally different cult, very closed group of people, arrogant and somehow not a very good feeling about them. It must be just me.
I saw a live stream of 500s presentations. There was a guy who couldn't stop swearing. I have nothing against swearing if there's good reason for it (eg. someone's really truly upset and needs to communicate how upset they are), but for a pitch to outsiders? It really bugged me. I guess for similar reasons, I love HN because it is really civil compared to other forums on the web; many other places (excluding quora), the trolls seem to run wild.
I don't want to think all 500s participants are like that, but it rubbed me the wrong way. It seemed childish, like, "I'm cool because I can swear, check me out!" I don't think I should let it colour the way I think about all 500s participants, but for some reason, it's a permanent link in my mind whenever 500s is brought up.
They seem like they're actually a pretty good outfit, but Dave McClure is known for communications chock full of explitives. I don't have problems with those words - they're pretty effective when used in the right way - but they kind of lose their meaning when used in those quantities.
Seems like sort of a minor detail though if they do a good job otherwise.
I like all the people in 500S, both the organizers as well as the participants. But I associate the brand with "unintelligent". It's like for the people who didn't quite make it or something.
