1y ago

Have hackathons become too political?

As the title said. I have participated in several hackathons over the last decade (10 hackathons).

And a thing I have noticed is that, in the last hackathons I went, winners were selected based on the inclusivity of their idea and not on their ability to build such idea.

To clarify, this were blockchain hackathons (I don't know if this can be relevant)

Examples

So I don't just sound like someone complaining, let me give examples.

In one big blockchain hackathon organized by Eth Global (a very big group) one of the 10 winners was a project for helping women and people of color. They presented only a presentation.

In another smaller hackathon, one of the winners was a great idea on how to fight censorship to help LGBTQ+ access the information they need in current times (and this idea was very well thought, I really like it). Again, they only presented slides, but didn't have any code at all.

My problem with it

It may be something new, or maybe I'm outdated but when I go to a hackathon, I expect people to actually build a proof of concept and present it.

I always thought that was the idea, get together and see what you can build in 24/48 hours. And at the end, the winners are selected by a mix of how original their idea was + their ability to actually build it.

When I see a team winning by presenting a project without having actually built enough to show it, I feel cheated. It feels like I'm watching Shark Tank or any show where participants try to sell the idea to VCs, instead of a programming tournament.

The fact that hundreds of people spend one or two all nighters planning a project that they can actually do in that time, fighting bugs, designing the site, testing their functionality and struggling with all the process of software engineering just to see that the winner didn't actually do anything of that and proposed an idea that maybe it can not even be done in a hackathon, is frustrating.

I want to clarify, my problem is not that I didn't win, my problem is that I always look up to the winners, I want to see their project, how it works, how amazing it is, how they were able to build it in such a short notice, and when I see that they didn't actually build anything, I have the problem.

When I participated in GameJams, having a submission was always a requirement, and I could play hundreds of amazing games, original or not. And the winner usually was someone that make a game from which I can learn a lot.

So, coming again to my question:

Have hackathons became too political? Is it only a blockchain hackathon thing?

I really enjoy going to hackathons, but this have been a bit frustrating between the last ones.

9 comments

The trouble is, many hackathons these days aren't "programming tournaments." They are advertising for a company/group or a way for that company/group to solicit new business ideas.
This goes double for the blockchain space where everything is about appearances and hype.
So as others have said, I don't think you should be upset about the "politics" of the winners, but rather about the actual purpose of the "hackathon."
- I think OP wasn’t aware that a lot of “hackathons” involve no code. I certainly wasn’t before I read some replies here. So I’m guessing OP wonders if it’s “we’re giving them the win regardless of their failure to complete the basic standards of a hackathon because of their minority status” instead of “we’re giving them the win because we’re looking for something other than functioning code, and despite that we won’t change our name from ‘hackathon’ which implies you need functioning code.”
  Nothing wrong with minorities winning hackathons, a lot wrong with people establishing certain expectations by calling an event a “hackathon” when it isn’t one.

It sounds like your problem is that people with bad projects are winning arbitrary contests. What does that have to do with politics? Your observation about the categories or people who are winning seems unrelated, unless your real problem is that marginalized people are winning contests, in which case the problem is just that you're more right-wing than you thought.
- What does that have to do with politics?
  The question seems to come from the mindset where, to put it jokingly, "there's two genders: male and political. Two sexualities: straight and political. Two races: white and political". Because while yes, having a no code solution win a hackathon isn't usually the default, this has absolutely nothing to do with "politics" and based on the examples given it's not even clear if the hackathons were the kind where you can just submit a well thought out idea instead of working code.

these are crypto hackathons my guy. theyre using lgbtq+ and poc as a smokescreen to hide the fact that there hasnt been a legitimate product on the blockchain yet.

I've seen this as well, hackathons now days are more of a competition for visionaries, project/business developers, middle management etc. rather than code monkeys.
I get why this shift of happening, the hackathons are held by governmental authorities, large foundations, big corporations and such. The slides presented are easier to explain and talk about with non-programmers and the judges are usually people that are accustomed to making decisions based on presentations and papers rather than proof-of-concepts...
I think there is a place for both the old and "the new" type of hackathon. But the organizers should make it clear beforehand what is the expected output of the competition.

I don't think it has anything to do with "politics". Blockchain / crypto is an area mostly focused on hype and marketing. So it's not surprising that their "hackathons" have little to no substance.

Hard to generalize about all hackatons?
I have a somewhat cynical view of the crypto community, but
It feels like I’m watching Shark Tank or any show where participants try to sell the idea to VCs, instead of a programming tournament.
Seems like something that might disproportionately might affect blockchain hackatons. There are in my experience a couple of different people who are into the blockchain: libertarians, people hoping to get rich and people really interested in the technical aspects (some overlap may exist).
The "hoping to get rich people" can sometimes be in conflict with the tech people and I think that this might be an example of this. If you're just interested in getting rich the actual technical details don't matter, just your ability to build hype around them.

9 comments