When did the Internet get so slimey?
bilbo0s: Let me preface this by saying that I do agree with your assertion that a large number of 'internet' or 'web 2.0' companies today get a large amount of their money via less than honorable business models.Having mentioned that, I am now going to engage in some 'what aboutery' even though I know that it is frowned on here at HN.You see, the ENTIRE dot-com time period was a gigantic scam. The dot-com guys were far worse than the Zynga-types because Zynga is only scamming their customers, whereas these dot-coms were scamming the public markets via crappy IPOs that the dot-com guys knew were crappy. When the music stopped guys like Naveen Jain, (InfoSpace), were left without a chair while guys like pmarca did the smart thing and got out early. The fact that companies today have to scam their customers is a direct consequence of the fact that they can no longer go public and scam some little old lady via her pension fund manager. But really...which is worse?It is human nature to be fond when remembering the past, and still, the past was rarely as fond as we remember it.Again, this is not to excuse what goes on today. I have recommended several times that people take a pass on investments because if the business models are already dodgy, they can only get worse. But let's be honest when comparing the now with the then, this brutal honesty is really what teaches us lessons.