HackerNews Summary (2023-06-14 10AM)

Source: NYC food delivery gig workers score a big minimum wage victory

Summary
New York City food delivery workers will soon receive a minimum salary of $17.96 per hour which aims to increase to $19.96 by 2025. This is a significant improvement from the $7.09 per hour base pay the workers are currently paid and reflects close to triple the amount in the most basic pay rate.

Fact

💸 This new wage, effective from July 12th, will triple the most basic pay rate for over 60,000 food delivery workers.

👨‍👩‍👦 The increase is welcomed by worker organisations and will provide better support for delivery workers and their families by eradicating years of life on a living wage.

👀 DoorDash is looking to explore all legal routes to maintain flexibility for such workers, with the minimum pay rate so low, there is the possibility that the ultimate outcome of this final rule could result in a $33-per-hour rate.

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Source: Bay Area woman on a crusade to prove Yelp reviews can’t be trusted

Summary
Kay Dean investigates fake reviews on Yelp and other platforms after a psychiatrist’s office demanded she take down a negative review or face a lawsuit. She found that the clinic was part of a small chain called SavantCare and eventually discovered ex-CEO Ravi Ratan’s felony charges. She has since led a years-long mission to expose fraudulent reviews and the culpability of big tech.

Fact

🕵️‍♀️ Dean has spent years documenting fraudulent Yelp and Google reviews that are bought, sold and exchanged on social media groups.

💰 She spotted seemingly paid-for reviews for high-ticket businesses, including doctors’ offices, lawyers, and home contractors that she says she’d “rather have no information than fake information” about.

👍 Yelp claims it aggressively and effectively weeds out fake reviews, but Dean disagrees and aims to convince Americans that the platform cannot be trusted.

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Source: Nelson’s Weblog: culture / apis-for-content-sites-must-be-free

Summary
Social media sites are breaking the social contract by locking down their APIs and charging fees for licensing access to data. This harms the company in the long term as users resort to screen scraping.

Fact

💻 Social media businesses like Twitter and Reddit should not charge for APIs as they don’t produce content, they merely host it.

🤖 Locking down an API breaks the social contract with millions of users who create content expecting it to be widely available, hindering AIs from training for free.

💰 A nominal fee for API access is acceptable but charging millions of dollars harms the long term growth of the company, as users may resort to screen scraping to access content.

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Source: What Reddit Got Wrong

Summary
Reddit’s success is owed to empowering moderators and users to engage with the site. Its model of community-led moderation and the freedom for communities to experiment with the platform has enabled it to thrive where similar sites have failed. Empowering motivated users to build useful tools for free has also been crucial. The communal good doesn’t keep the lights on, but compensation through app stores, freemium features, or donations can make their work more sustainable.

Fact

👥 Empowering moderators from within a community has been crucial to Reddit’s success.

💻 Empowering motivated users to build useful tools for free is another component of Reddit’s success.

💰 Compensation through app stores, freemium features, or donations can make the work of maintaining and improving projects more sustainable.

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