Hello everybody, i just noticed a not really great sponsor to have in the bottom left ( Palantir ), i was wondering whether they are still eligible to be sponsors of stuff like ICPC or this was just something that went through at the time.
I hope i don't have to explain why i was wondering :) . ( And yes, i do know that many other companies are not saint, but that's maybe too much? )
Just in case you think the photo is not real, here is the link to the official swerc page from that year go at the bottom to see sponsor. SWERC 2017
( I don't know if they will put me on a watchlist for this, but so be it i guess XD )
Auto comment: topic has been updated by WeakBlood (previous revision, new revision, compare).
Do these competitions even have much of a choice? If ICPC starts refusing sponsors, whats stopping another org from accepting them and becoming a competitor? These competitions are pretty much recruiting events for any malign corporation without a different funding model, just like with Lockheed Martin, Raytheon, etc funding physics and science contests.
that's true but ethics should remain a thing. maybe i'm just being silly but i don't think some money is worth being associated with a company like that, but that's just my view i don't have tools for checking how much they needed that sponsorship. About the competitor, ICPC is one of the biggest competitions out there, and even if it wasn't, i really think many people would appreciate a competition having some kind of ethic. Last thing, it's just sad for me seeing something that i see as a passion/hobby be reduced to a recruiting process
I definitely agree with the ethics POV, I'm not sure why you are getting so many downvotes since you are bringing up something interesting.
But it's kinda impossible tho with how the world is structured rn. Even without considering possible other competitors (maybe even organized by the blocked company itself), they are still losing a chunk of revenue that might necessitate cuts to competitions. There might even be some some sort of selection effect where the biggest contests are already likely the ones that are the least hostile to sponsor money, which produces a very sponsor-friendly culture after a while.
it's ok about the downvote thing maybe it's just a stingy topic to talk about here. That could also be true, ( about the least hostile to sponsors thing ) though i've never seen icpc something really meant for generating revenue since most of the people that are writing the problemset seem to do it for the sake of it and never for some type of profit. maybe there is really so little money for those competitions and perhaps one less sponsor could mean never having icpc again, but since i don't know the blog was asking if they do have some kind of policy/ethics in this regard and if they as of 2026 would still take in sponsors as controversial as Palantir.