I think this comment shows everything that is asinine and vapid about the YC "community".

Ian Clarke invented freenet... the most successful peer-to-peer privacy network.

And whether his businesses have been successful or not (I don't know, but I know you don't) he's been more successful than the members of this community. He has far more users than reddit, for instance.

Its amazing that every disagreement or criticism of YC is met with the "you're a failure" or "you're jealous" or "you're bitter" response.

Never a response on the point.

This is what has me increasingly believing that YC is a cult of personality-- its adherents don't make arguments, they repreat mantra. Their motivation is not intellectual honesty-- but defense of their idol.

Please, prove me wrong!

These are the classic comebacks of kids. Is this community made up of college students? Is that the problem?

Is FreeNet really all that successful? I remember seriously looking into it back in 2000, when Napster and Gnutella and FreeNet were all the rage, and thinking it was incredibly innovative and potentially world-changing. However, back then it had no GUI and required that you search for files by hash code, both of which were showstoppers for me. I've kinda forgotten about it since, because none of my friends use it. The Wikipedia article suggests that it still has speed and usability problems. Have they fixed the showstoppers that made me ignore it in 2000?

Co-founder status on Revver isn't bad... we can safely ignore him because everyone here understands the value provided by Y Combinator.

I once tried to contribute to freenet. Yes, Ian is absolutely arrogant and rude, and he is the reason his startups fail.

You didn't make an argument, you just engaged in personal attack.

At least he's persistent :D