I agree with you on the reason Developers go to hackathons. That's why they're so likely to be taken advantage of. I'm simply saying that the young developer community needs to be wary.
It's clearly written by someone who thinks they can throw material things at a Developer and then get them to work 20-hour days for three months straight.
Regarding "hacker mansions" a cursory read of this job posting should reveal what I'm referring to: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3961037
It's clearly written by someone who thinks they can throw material things at a Developer and then get them to work 20-hour days for three months straight.