[mehulashah]

I agree. As a sponsor, we don’t also do it any longer. The incentives are fake. You want people to be excited about using your tool, not using it in some contrived way to win a few bucks. When the use is real, the feedback is real. Otherwise, it’s the blind leading the blind.

The hackathons I remember as a college student were different. They were much more free form. You were asked to create something around a broad topic: eg graphics, operating systems, modeling a neuron. You were allowed and encouraged to go outside the box.

Getting the prize was fun, but a working artifact was much more satisfying. That’s why we did it.

So, yes, it’s too commercial these days.