MacHeist registration open to TUAW readers for 24 hours

To
Foodoo1
The responses work on a keyword basis.

Keywords such as "Arn","MacRumors", "iphone specs."

The email also requires that u answer the questions that are asked of you.

Who sent you?
"Tuaw/Macrumors sent me"

To everyone who's curious: no, we aren't getting any sort of hookup for covering MacHeist. We didn't plan on posting this many times about it - we merely uncovered some details before it launched (post #1), and since I personally liked the idea of helping to generate some hype for 3rd party developers (y'know, the guys who drive the Mac community), I thought it'd be fun to ask Phillip Ryu and crew if we could have some invites to hand out (post #2). Originally, we had 25 invites - nothing too mind blowing - which I was happy to manually copy and paste to get out to everyone, but we were quickly blown away by a sheer landslide of interest, resulting in what is now over 800 requests (with the occasional invite offer).

Obviously, we had a problem on our hands, and I made a promise to everyone that I would have their invites out by a certain time. Due to the new complications, I wound up breaking that promise, and since we didn't have a solution in our hands, I felt a responsibility to the readers to let them know what was going on and that we were working on a solution (post #3).

We finally had a solution - this post (#4). What admittedly should have been maybe two posts at the most wound up getting dragged out to an earth-shattering four. Rest assured, things are all cleaned up now, and we won't be posting every time MacHeist sneezes. In the end, I hope this explanation sheds some better light on the situation, and calms any worries that we're becoming anything but an unofficial *Apple* weblog.

Cheers, and thanks for reading.

Well, if there was so much interest, I wonder why nobody wanted any of my free invites.

I don't blame TUAW for including this as a news item, but I do blame them for over-promoting it.

BTW, the Disco app thing should not nullify MacZot's overall appeal. One bad apple don't spoil the whole bunch. :-)

They probably care more about the money than your viewership. I wonder how much they're making?

One more Mac Heist related post and I'm permanently removing TUAW from daily favorites.

You've been served.

does anyone know what im supposed to tell this "billy hull" guy?

It does work. Even if you don't want to go on that paper chase, you can get clues or the whole solution, step-by-step, in their forum.
For the first assignment, you get Chat Transcript Manager, Assignment Planner and Soulver for free (+ 2$ off the mysterious final software packet).
So, it's nothing spectacular for now, but it's free software nonetheless..

MacHeist is crap. It does not work and the developers are not up to fix it. Spare yourself the trouble of a scavenger hunt that isn't even fun because it's broken.

Ridiculous and Slingshot,

Fair point, I didn't make reference to the 'pimping' or 'overreporting' (you choose which, as I am not sure that we'll really ever know) of the information via the site, and for that I apologise.

The guys here at TUAW are no doubt excited and interested (and perhaps commercially interested), along with many of the readers - but I guess it could become overload for those who are not.

I don't mind too much about about the irrelevant articles that come my way, at least it shows that the site is busy and up to date, etc.

I've started reading the site through google reader. Saves me time. ;-)

So the real question becomes - TUAW, what are you getting for all the reporting, or is it just becuase you are keen.......?

Hammo, you've either missed or chosen to ignore my point - which is not related to Macheist per se (I can just avoid their site), but rather to the way TUAW has become an extra tool in their marketing department.

If the kids behind Macheist want to go about their business in this way then fine, but I don't want to see one of my major sources of Apple news constantly pushing this stuff at me.

I don't know if its a commercial arrangement and money is changing hands, or if its just a case of giving your mates a bit of free publicity. Either way its starting to turn me off a site which I used to read avidly. Shame.