Benjamin Ling
@bling0
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Founder and GP at @blingcapital , GP @khoslaventures , Fitness junkie, formerly @YouTube @Google @Facebook
Miami Beach, FL
Joined April 2008
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Excited to announce Bling Capital Fund II ($113M) to help entrepreneurs find product market fit! cc
@blingcapital
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Crime is the primary reason we are leaving SF.
My brother was randomly assaulted in the middle of the street, one of our founders was mugged on Market.
As of 2021, I avoid walking SF streets when possible, and warn friends to be hyper vigilant when doing so.
Anecdotally, every single one of my friends right now is considering leaving SF (and frankly, myself included).
The biggest driver is no longer cost of living. It's crime.
My friends are scared for their children, and their husbands are scared for their wives...
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2007: “Facebook is evil and a walled garden. It must share user info and the graph with other developers!” — said every critic
2018: “Facebook is evil and shared all of your information with other developers (with your consent)!” — said the same critics
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This guy has the *audacity* to put a “Chinese name” in his Twitter bio to pander to Asians, but does nothing to protect our elderly
#recallChesa
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SF flunks what I call the "mom test"
Walking with one's kid on street, even as a tourist, one shouldn't have to explain:
- why entire row of car windows are broken
- why so many people injecting drugs w/ needles
- why so many homeless tents
- why human feces on the street
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ROAS: can we agree to stop using this useless vanity metric (~as useless as “registered users”)?
Who cares if you have 5x ROAS if margin is 3%? Spent $1, got $1*5*3% = $.15
Should be looking at
MOAS: margin on ad spend eg margin returned per ad $ spent, + subsequent txn margin
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Uber and
@lyft
need to fix a platform incentive problem: in rush hour, some drivers purposefully drive away from a pickup point, do not answer repeated phone calls, and hope that a passenger cancels to pocket the $5 cancelation fee. Worst user experience with no recourse.
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Apologists and SF officials keep (wrongly) arguing crime is down in SF
And that those claiming crime is up are “not interpreting the data correctly”
So I ran the query for the most recent period (4/1 to today)
Guess what the data says?
Drumroll...
Crime is up by 15%
1/x
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My car was broken into 3x in a year.
Reporting crime required I go in person to SFPD. I was warned that "nothing could be done about it" even though on one of the incidents we had a video of the crime happening. So I didn't report it.
Crime is not down. Reporting is down.
Crime in San Francisco is not down.
Crime reporting in San Francisco is down.
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Today I got an MRI done.
Coincidentally I asked what the out of pocket cost of the same MRI would be without insurance.
Out of pocket cost (co-pay w/ insurance):
$733
Out of pocket cost (no insurance):
$350
So a patient pays 2x out of pocket w insurance!
Is this normal?
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SF companies during COVID19:
“WFH”
Gym at 5 pm:
Packed. Like New Years week packed.
Not sure “social distancing” is working as intended.
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1/2
Car broken into again today in SF.
This is
@LondonBreed
and
@chesaboudin
‘s San Francisco.
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My talk to 700+ Silicon Valley interns on Top 20 "Things you know now that you wish you knew at age 20"
http://t.co/34MSI2lws7
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@bencasnocha
@rsg
Here is a shortlist of places:
- Palo Alto
- Manhattan
- London
- Taipei
- Bangkok
- Boston
- Tokyo
- Dallas
- Miami
- Honolulu
- San Francisco, until ~2020
- and *every other* "first world" city in the world I've been to
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@anothercohen
While I am a Florida resident, I must say HEB is excellent and perhaps much better.
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Thank you regulators for legislation that now requires me and millions of users to click on “Accept cookies” or “no thanks” on every single page I ever visit!
Massive consumer value added.
NB: for non-native English speakers (I am one myself), this is *sarcasm*
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"I am humbled" is probably the worst way to say "I am proud."
There are moments in life where you deserve to be proud (of yourself, your team, your family), and your friends and supporters will be proud (not humbled) of you.
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This clown 🤡 actively spread misinformation to create panic / a run on FRB for personal gain (is short FRB / tweeted it / then deleted)
Now he has removed his firm Alpine Fox from his twitter bio, deleted his LinkedIn profile.
Why hide now?
Who are this guy’s LPs?
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“Crime is decreasing in SF”
SF officials have found a brilliant way to cook the books and cheat the stats.
How?
Drop the charges. Don’t log the crime, or log it as something else entirely.
No record, no crime!
I’m super mad about violent charges being dropped in
@cyantist
’s home invasion case
This DA violates victims rights and then spends massive government resources on misinformation campaigns and discrediting his political enemies instead of doing his job. It’s truly ridiculous.
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Honored to be on Forbes 2023 Midas Seed List!
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This is from the President of the SF Unified School District, who has lived in SF for a mere 5 years:
“Go back to where you came from!”
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This headline is backward. It should read: “Android allows all apps (including Facebook) to scrape call and text messages from its phones.”
Facebook scraped call, text message data for years from Android phones
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I have frequently cited Christianity as one of the best and most durable business models in all history, e.g.
- organic viral growth: existing members recruit and birth new ones
- high LTV through tithing
- members self-organize to engage and retain fellow members
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This says every bit as much about the state of journalism and fact checking as it does about the founder.
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This is why “Crime is down” in SF
If you can’t acknowledge this, you are actively lying to yourself (and likely others)
People who are the victim of multiple crimes stop reporting it.
If they have the means, they eventually fix the problem on their own by leaving SF.
I only reported the first of several car break-ins and home robbery attempts we experienced.
Leaving SF was the only solution.
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It's no secret that I am long Google and remain a fan of the company and the people there.
But this is WRONG
No, it is not reasonable to delete users' reviews when they have a legitimate complaint against the app that hosed them.
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Not a knock on the product or audience either. But if you’re spending hours a day on Clubhouse, you’re not a VC focused on returns (you’re a wanna be social media celebrity).
Not a knock on the product or audience but if you’re spending hours a day on Clubhouse, you’re not an operator (you’re a VC).
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Always carefully analyze the actions of those who have asymmetric information.
WeWork CEO Adam Neumann has reportedly cashed out of over $700 million ahead of its IPO by
@jshieber
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“Crime is down folks, don’t let the fake news media convince you otherwise”
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Thanks to all the
@blingcapital
founders and
@DannyCrichton
for the mention! ❤️
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How ironic. Over a decade ago, the Facebook Platform team was “directed” to shut down the
#1
app (built by Slide) to “teach them a lesson” on violating platform policies.
New: Apple says it is banning Facebook’s research app that collects users’ personal information in exchange for money. It called FB's app "a clear breach of their agreement" with Apple.
FB said last night it was removing the app.
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Very excited for
@parkerconrad
and the entire
@Rippling
team!
New $200M primary round at $13.4B valuation led by
@coatuemgmt
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This is the lot next to what is relatively “city center”
It is 0.2-0.6 miles away from the headquarters of Stripe, Pinterest, Airbnb, and Zynga.
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#carjacking
We arrived back to SF from the airport at 11:18 pm PT and found what appeared to be an illegally parked vehicle in the cul de sac (which we will soon discover is not parked at all)
1/n
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FB in 2007: sheep throwing and super poke are spamming newsfeed and need to stop! <bans Slide>🙅
FB in 2016: fake news? Not my problem. 💁
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And to the many commenters:
This doesn’t even include the crimes that aren’t being reported because residents gave up reporting for lack of enforcement
cc:
@LondonBreed
7/x
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One of our port CEOs just told me he received an offer from [large growth fund] at $2B.
I asked him what he wanted to do.
He then laughed and said “April Fool’s!!”
The craziest part of this story: these offers are actually happening in the market weekly if not daily!
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Handshakes: eliminate this useless tradition
For last decade, ppl ridiculed me for not shaking. If you meet new ppl all day, just 1 ill person makes you a super disease spreader. No VC washes hands after every mtg
Today, ppl thank me if I don’t shake
Let’s make this permanent
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@Scott_Wiener
Scott this is a bad look. Nobody should be attacked in that manner.
If you went to speak at an ultra conservative school, you should not be attacked because your views differ.
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Every time I see videos of seniors being attacked, it makes my blood boil.
One attack is too many.
WTF is wrong with SF.
Another innocent elderly Asian man in San Francisco minding his business and attacked for no reason. And yet mayor
@LondonBreed
’s office wants us to believe that Asian hate crimes have dropped to 6 last year. No one believes that.
@DionLimTV
has posted more than that alone.
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“When I said 3x in 1 year, I meant venture returns, not number of times my car should be broken into in SF!”
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So to all those arguing “your anecdotes aren’t data”
Here is your data
Crime in SF is not down
It is up by 15%+
6/x
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This doesn’t even include the fact that population of SF decreased during same period
Which means crime per capita is up by *more* than 15%
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💯 re angel investing.
For the first 10-20 investments you should be willing to lose it all and treat as learning opportunity or as opportunity to support other entrepreneurs.
Still, you likely will not know how you fare until 7+ years later.
@sachinrekhi
@sarthakgh
@dunkhippo33
I tell my friends who are thinking about it to only put money in that they know they can set fire to without feeling it. Assume you will lose it all. If it will hurt, don’t do it at all.
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And like clockwork...
But local officials and academics who don’t live here reliably inform me crime is down. Don’t believe your lying eyes, people.
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Well done
@google
"the practice of sport is a human right" -- Olympic Charter
http://t.co/mrFToqWfr9
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The fact that this headline could even be published tells you a lot about how systemic the problem is at this organization, along with its crazy implicit biases.
Even
@Reuters
is whitewashing hate crimes for the general populace.
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Taxes and grift are SF activists answer to everything, which only causes more problems.
And more taxes. And grift.
Rooting for
@garrytan
and others to get rid of all of the nonsense
Muni is badly strapped for cash, but these SF activists have a solution: tax Uber, Lyft and Waymo to pay for it.
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Crime is the primary reason we left SF.
We moved to Miami two years ago where residents do not complain of crime or feel unsafe walking on the streets.
In the two years, it seems SF has only gotten worse.
Crime is the primary reason we are leaving SF.
My brother was randomly assaulted in the middle of the street, one of our founders was mugged on Market.
As of 2021, I avoid walking SF streets when possible, and warn friends to be hyper vigilant when doing so.
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1/ In venture capital, it is often said:
"the best companies are cults"
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Why do SF officials keep making excuses and ignoring the law-abiding, tax-paying residents who play their part in civic responsibility and instead prioritizing those that do not?
@LondonBreed
@bling0
Like, I’ve gotten punched in the face by a drunk homeless person… so why would I let my baby girl near that ish.
It’s not political, it just is what it is
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I do not agree with Bernie on many/most things, but I believe he is correct on this point.
Some people ask: Why would you impeach and convict a president who has only a few days left in office? The answer: Precedent. It must be made clear that no president, now or in the future, can lead an insurrection against the U.S. government.
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SF officials keep publishing “vanity metrics” that any local will tell you are misleading at best and lies at worst
“Crime is down”
“Car breakins are down”
It is so useless to report crime in SF that locals have given up.
SF is on fire and the officials are in utter denial.
Retweet if you’ve had your car broken into in San Francisco and didn’t bother reporting it to the police.
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NYC vs SF
NYC’s approach to Covid with proof of vaccine for indoors ->
efficient and practical
SF’s approach to Covid requiring masks indoors ->
performance art at its best. Typical SF virtue signaling with no real benefits
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Parker’s unique combination of brilliance, underdog tenacity, and swing for the fences ambition make it a no brainer to back him again.
Congrats
@parkerconrad
and
@ripplingapp
on the latest milestone
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Ok I never thought myself a big
@taylorswift13
fan but kudos to her for calling out
@KimKardashian
's bullying and trashy behavior
#ThanKyouaIMee
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When one says: "Person X on my team is the best eng I've ever met" -- usually has unintended *opposite* effect, esp when one is v early in career vs. if say, s/he has run engineering orgs of 1000s of people.
TLDR: Avoid this in pitches (unless you're closer to the latter)
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Congrats to
@parkerconrad
and the entire
@Rippling
team on raising $145M in Series B funding!
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Excited for
@MoawiaEldeeb
and the Tempo team!
SoftBank Leads $220 Million Funding for AI Home Gym Maker Tempo - Bloomberg
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Pay attention especially to those that have experienced 2001 AND 2008.
If someone older than you with business experience is giving you advice on navigating tough times please listen & don’t argue. Good judgement comes from experience that comes from bad judgment. They used to have the same perspective you do. That’s why they are trying to help.
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This thread from Justin is 💯.
Also re
#3
, there is absolutely nothing wrong with running a non-“venture” co (as one example, a co that makes $5-30M in profits yearly, but tops out there). One would be foolish to believe that “venture” is the sole route to be successful.
1/ Feeling like you deserve money and that it is unjust that you aren’t getting it is a very common sentiment among founders
But no business *deserves* to be funded. If you can’t convince investors to give you $, something is wrong with the following: market, metrics, narrative
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⅓ Exciting news from
@viseinc
- we closed a $65M Series C at a $1B+ Valuation.
This funding will allow us to make even bigger investments faster.
We plan to accelerate investments in our platform, hiring new talent + the rollout of new features.
👇
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In 2008, Sheryl mandated the
#1
app (built by Slide) be shut down and subject to 3rd party audit of its code to verify compliance with FB Platform’s ToS before allowing Slide to return. Shouldn’t FB be subject to its own prescribed heavy-handed remedies for violating Apple’s ToS?
Sheryl Sandberg defends Facebook data-collecting app: Users 'knew they were involved and consented'
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@hunterwalk
@joshelman
Year: 2009
Acquirer: YouTube / Google
Target: Netflix
Purchase price: ~$3-4B
Well... you know how the rest of the story goes.
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How *not* to approach a seed stage investor:
Cold email:
"Hi [partner name], we are building [X] and have exciting traction! Could we schedule a call with our founder?
Sincerely,
[Junior staff member who is neither the CEO nor the founder]"
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Cannot emphasize enough. Seeing this with founders who have never seen 2001/2008
Key is “we don’t know what is going to happen” therefore one must protect against systemic downside risk
Best case: all blows over, slightly more dilution
Worst case: company death
Choose wisely
prediction: 90%+ of the founders of marginal companies who turn down funding offers right now because of greed (protecting against dilution) will likely kill their cos. (vs. taking the $ & operating from fear). i pray for all. i also encourage u 2 eat if dinner is being served😊
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Imagine a city whose politicians are so corrupt to use a calamity (constituents may not receive payroll due to bank failure not of their fault) as a political weapon
Nobody wants to bail out the bank
Working class should get their paychecks
That is not bailing out the rich
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Naval is right
As a 20 year Google bull, I didn’t want the Gemini critiques to be true
Then I tested it for myself…
it was beyond embarrassing, as if it had never even been tested on real users
We’ll know Google is serious about AI when they fire the current management team.
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Cue apologists who continue to claim (read: lie to your face) that “crime is down”
The retail crimes we've seen in San Francisco are not victimless crimes--they have real consequences and they undermine the sense of safety in our community.
Today I'm announcing our Organized Retail Crime Initiative, which will do the following:
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These Uber/Lyft marketing campaigns are walking that fine line between "clever" vs "purposefully deceptive":
Headline:
75% off your next ride/order!
Fine print:
** max discount of $5
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The US government's mismeasuring and underreporting of COVID19 numbers makes Theranos look like the gold standard in comparison.
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Celebrating vanity metrics e.g. "unemployment rate" vs. real metrics e.g. "labor force participation rate" leads to surprises like this.
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You can run the query yourself here:
2/x
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One (of the few) upside to COVID-19:
~3x improvement in traffic conditions
Traffic on highway 101 and 280 temporarily back to 2004 levels
38 minutes between Googleplex and Google SF vs 120 minutes
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Rode in a Lime Scooter today and thought I was gonna die on the road... but not because of the scooter, but because of the incredibly poor condition of SF roads.
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I’m excited to formally announce our $45M Series B financing led by
@sequoia
. We’re incredibly excited to partner with Ravi Gupta as he joins our board and helps us continue to scale Vise.
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@samelliottsam
It’s a weird realization to have — that what one considers (or used to consider) “home” feels unsafe relative to other parts of the world often perceived as “unsafe”
And given SF officials don’t care/want to make improvements, it is important to then adjust accordingly.
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People should be complaining that Google is committing the same offense that Facebook did in the Cambridge issue. Platform design is complex.
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100% correct.
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Why is the SF Chronicle gaslighting SF?
“SF Chronicle Uses Incorrect Data to Shame Those Concerned About Rising Crime”
The SF Chronicle chose to make its story about the murder of tech executive Bob Lee into a lecture on crime, essentially shaming those who are concerned with SF’s crime levels. They made the following false statements: (1 of 3)
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Willfully disrupting customers' business processes has never been and will never be a sound strategy
#ADPeeved
http://t.co/hXBoN4pWJH
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When will SF officials and its residents wake up and see this is not your Jean Valjean “I stole a loaf of bread” type of crime, and stop making excuses for / effectively endorsing it?
This just happened at the
@Walgreens
on Gough & Fell Streets in San Francisco.
#NoConsequences
@chesaboudin
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@EffWebsite
FWIW, Twitter labeled your reply as "potentially offensive" and hid it behind clicks.
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Why Slingshot is flawed: "Give to get" only works if you know what you'll get, otherwise ppl "give" garbage just to see what they will "get"
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