this is my worst nightmare. free users are some of the most abusive and aggressive people that will without question overrun and destroy your product.
The toxic side of free – how I lost the love for my side project (part 4)
111–120 of 185 posts
Re: The toxic side of free – how I lost the love for my side project (part 4)
#112Following the bliss isn't supposed to pay the bills. Following the bliss increases skill-sets, creates necessary connections between persons, and gives the bliss-seeker an out. Out is good. The bliss is not the means to an end. The bliss is self serving and self improving, while also finding an escape from the daily grind and its deleterious effects. Follow your bliss, by all means. But, at the same time, realize tha…
If you're dedicated enough to follow the bliss, it will pay your bills, and also do the other things. If you have failed personally, please don't discourage others. Programming can be bliss, at least seeing the results. I mean, why else would anybody program? Just for the money?
[deleted]
Re: The toxic side of free – how I lost the love for my side project (part 4)
#113Honestly, his target users are those who needs a free place to try out web coding, which means many of his users are likely not well off enough to be able to want to throw money at something that they get the full use out of.
I won't say the thing is bad, but the business behind it is bad. Got to have a viable targeted userbase as the core, and handle any new userbase as they come in.
Re: The toxic side of free – how I lost the love for my side project (part 4)
#114Okay, say you're a US citizen building some digi service like JS Bin, and VATMOSS starts fling threats at you, for how long can you go about ignoring them? I mean 3.5k GBP and however many weekdays it took isn't exactly affordable for every small business, and if you don't even have many Euro pro-users, I don't see the cost-benefit justification of giving VATMOSS priority unless they can reach across the Atlantic.
Depending on the kind of service, a good solution is to use a third party provider that handles VAT payments for you; FastSpring, for example: http://www.fastspring.com/vat (disclaimer, I am a happy FastSpring customer in the US, but have no other relationship with them)
Another +1 for FastSpring (happy customer from Australia here). This is exactly why you would use such a service, even though it takes a higher percentage cut. It's worth it for reduced tax hassle & improved fraud screening. If they detect fraud on one customer's site, they can block the card for all their customers.
I love Fastspring but they're not the only game in town. I used to use Kagi, and Avangate & Cleverbridge are two other companies I've heard of. There's lots of them out there.
Re: The toxic side of free – how I lost the love for my side project (part 4)
#115Following the bliss isn't supposed to pay the bills. Following the bliss increases skill-sets, creates necessary connections between persons, and gives the bliss-seeker an out. Out is good. The bliss is not the means to an end. The bliss is self serving and self improving, while also finding an escape from the daily grind and its deleterious effects. Follow your bliss, by all means. But, at the same time, realize tha…
If you're dedicated enough to follow the bliss, it will pay your bills, and also do the other things. If you have failed personally, please don't discourage others. Programming can be bliss, at least seeing the results. I mean, why else would anybody program? Just for the money?
> I mean, why else would anybody program? Just for the money?
Considering the pay, absolutely!
Re: The toxic side of free – how I lost the love for my side project (part 4)
#116Earlier quoted context omitted.
Yeah, "Verified by Visa" is exactly like phishing. Good paper. Fortunately here in the USA I haven't been asked for my credentials in at least 10 years. So it seems to have died the death it so richly deserved. Do people encounter this on a daily basis?
Visa and co. are big—really big—so I've never understood why they've not just leaned on the OS manufacturers and browser makers to provide them some form of unique, unforgeable signal to users that they're interacting with a real bank. There could be, say, an HTML5-exposed API capable of triggering "super-modal" forms (like OS UAC does) if-and-only-if the page is being served from a secure origin cross-signed by some…
Well, the more you rely on a strong signal like that, the easier it is to get phished by sufficient approximations.
Re: The toxic side of free – how I lost the love for my side project (part 4)
#117Remy, I'm sorry. JSBin is my favorite live JS environment, and I use it several times a week, and I haven't paid a thing. That's not fair to you. I'm also sorry that I haven't sent the emails that probably still sit in my drafts folder, because I think that the JSBin genre of software development tools has a very bright future - and I encourage you to not give up. For now, is it at all possible to just send you $100…
<3 there's a "keep me honest: donate" button at the bottom of my blog.
Done. And I stipulate that you spend at least some of the money on a beer. Cheers.
Re: The toxic side of free – how I lost the love for my side project (part 4)
#118JS Bin is a service that appeals to techies. As such, it should see moderate success accepting Bitcoin! Bitcoin transactions are non-reversible, which would solve the fraud complications.
How many people do you think would pay for jsbin via Bitcoin but not via regular money?
Re: The toxic side of free – how I lost the love for my side project (part 4)
#119There was a post here recently trying to figure out why Europe's startup scene was falling behind the US.
Kudos to companies that can survive past monstrosities like VAT and VATMOSS.
Out of curiosity, how is VAT enforced for a non-EU seller and an EU buyer? Let's say my business was registered in the Cayman islands for example.
Re: The toxic side of free – how I lost the love for my side project (part 4)
#120Earlier quoted context omitted.
Yeah, "Verified by Visa" is exactly like phishing. Good paper. Fortunately here in the USA I haven't been asked for my credentials in at least 10 years. So it seems to have died the death it so richly deserved. Do people encounter this on a daily basis?
Visa and co. are big—really big—so I've never understood why they've not just leaned on the OS manufacturers and browser makers to provide them some form of unique, unforgeable signal to users that they're interacting with a real bank. There could be, say, an HTML5-exposed API capable of triggering "super-modal" forms (like OS UAC does) if-and-only-if the page is being served from a secure origin cross-signed by some…
Eh they don't even bother with a real-looking domain name or a non-phishy form. Seems like they are too out of touch or simply not paying attention.