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Don't Be a Free User (2011)

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Re: Don't Be a Free User (2011)

#61

Post by ekidd »

user5994461 wrote: post #31
microtonal wrote: post #28

Unfortunately, it often seems that with too little money, a service disappears due to bankruptcy, with too much money a service disappears due to talent acquisition. With software as an application, there was still the possibility to continue using software for years when a company shut down. Windows has terrific backwards compatibility and on UNIX you get far by keeping around old shared libraries and giving a hint…

> Windows has terrific backwards compatibility Windows is most backward compatible software in existence.

> Windows is most backward compatible software in existence.

You were downvoted for saying this, but anybody who has read the Old New Thing blog (https://blogs.msdn.microsoft.com/oldnewthing/) or Raymond Chen's chapter on Windows backwards compatibility (http://ptgmedia.pearsoncmg.com/images/9780321440303/samplech..., PDF) will be both impressed and horrified at the lengths the Windows team went to in order to avoid breaking programs.

Re: Don't Be a Free User (2011)

#62

Post by SFJulie »

I am gonna stop giving books at my local library and burn my library card.

OOps, it sounds stupid.

Okay then, I am gonna stop taking first aid lessons and helping/be helped by benevolent persons.

Ooops, still sound stupid.

I am gonna stop eating my wife bread without paying her.

Still sounds stupid.

I am gonna stop voting because it is free! And counting ballots for free!

I give up. It is amazing how people that are specialist of hammers see every problems as a nail, and may fail to understand that our time is a valuable.

For instance, free services of exchange of native seeds is nowadays the only way to conserve and preserve very important biological diversity and help compensate regulations made to accommodate Bayer/Monsanto racket on seeds. And it is free, so that it lowers the friction in taking part in the global system.

Most actual services nowadays are close to extorsion and developping free as a beer alternative where you exchange time for a service help keep alive important stuff such as culture, seeds, knowledge, freedom... software. Stuff money cannot buy.

We don't need the market every where in our life. Economy is not what drives our existence, else why have kids? They are a cost center. Let's kill them.

Re: Don't Be a Free User (2011)

#63

Post by Raed667 »

0xCMP wrote: post #52
Raed667 wrote: post #23

These arguments fall apart when you're living in a country with no access to online, international payment methods. And I realize that you don't want to bother with people that are not currently potential customers, but I'm just saying that you're locking entire countries out.

So it needs ads then? Or it needs to be self hosted? What's the alternative for someone to build a business on the internet like pinboard does?

I don't know if there is a generic answer to this problem.

Re: Don't Be a Free User (2011)

#64

Post by andrewclunn »

andrewclunn wrote: post #8
wmeredith wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

He addresses this in the article.

Oh wow. Read it but somehow missed that. Well I'll leave the foot in mouth comment for posterity.

Oh good apparently owning up to a mistake and leaving it up should also get downvoted. Gotta love this community.

Re: Don't Be a Free User (2011)

#65

Post by akjainaj »

devoply wrote: post #57
Michie wrote: post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

@devoply, I think the best term to describe akjainaj is a parasite. A parasite is an organism that lives in or on another organism (its host) and benefits by deriving nutrients at the host's expense. Based from his response here, I think he is just a troll.

He has a point, consumer psychology is set up this way. As entrepreneurs we have to understand it and deal with it.

Most businesses of all sectors use all kinds of techniques to maximise consumption from customers, some of them very shady. Billions are poured into behavioural studies of customers and voodoo tricks so people spend money on stuff sometimes they don't even need.

As a customer, I feel entitled to take advantage of everything I can. I don't understand the negativity around it. Us consumers have a salary each month, and we are supposed to get everything we can out of it. It's that simple.

Re: Don't Be a Free User (2011)

#66

Post by wodenokoto »

While I don't disagree with the sentiment, I do feel like $5 here and $5 there in monthly charges quickly adds up.

mail, web site/blog (some blog services want a minimum of $10-15!), maybe git hosting, another 5 for a bookmark service (pocket is $5, though pinboard is only $1) a back-up solution, and so on and so on. Should I also have a paid subscription to my internet search and social network services?

Re: Don't Be a Free User (2011)

#67

Post by jeremyjh »

0xCMP wrote: post #52
Raed667 wrote: post #23

These arguments fall apart when you're living in a country with no access to online, international payment methods. And I realize that you don't want to bother with people that are not currently potential customers, but I'm just saying that you're locking entire countries out.

So it needs ads then? Or it needs to be self hosted? What's the alternative for someone to build a business on the internet like pinboard does?

What would be the point in advertising in a country without payment infrastructure? You would have to find local businesses who want to advertise online and who would also have barriers to paying you.

Re: Don't Be a Free User (2011)

#68

Post by Raed667 »

jeremyjh wrote: post #67
0xCMP wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So it needs ads then? Or it needs to be self hosted? What's the alternative for someone to build a business on the internet like pinboard does?

What would be the point in advertising in a country without payment infrastructure? You would have to find local businesses who want to advertise online and who would also have barriers to paying you.

In Tunisia for example, there is a booming payment infrastructure. It is just limited to local currency and local stores. Local Google and Facebook ads are flourishing.

Re: Don't Be a Free User (2011)

#69

Post by fapjacks »

akjainaj wrote: post #65
devoply wrote: post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

He has a point, consumer psychology is set up this way. As entrepreneurs we have to understand it and deal with it.

Most businesses of all sectors use all kinds of techniques to maximise consumption from customers, some of them very shady. Billions are poured into behavioural studies of customers and voodoo tricks so people spend money on stuff sometimes they don't even need. As a customer, I feel entitled to take advantage of everything I can. I don't understand the negativity around it. Us consumers have a salary each month, and…

Absolutely this. Businesses have honed to great effect their ability to extract money from people. It's just the yang of capitalism that people extract as much as possible from businesses at the lowest price possible (or free).

Re: Don't Be a Free User (2011)

#70

Post by sireat »

akjainaj wrote: post #58
Michie wrote: post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

@devoply, I think the best term to describe akjainaj is a parasite. A parasite is an organism that lives in or on another organism (its host) and benefits by deriving nutrients at the host's expense. Based from his response here, I think he is just a troll.

I don't see how I'm trolling here. For example, I run Spotify with an ad blocker, so I don't have to pay for it. And years ago, when they limited the amount of minutes of music you could listen to every month, I made tons of accounts to bypass that limitation. Why? Because, in the unlikely case they go out of business, by then some other service would've appeared, run by someone who thinks he won't commit the same mi…

You do have a point, shipping 50lbs of pet food for free was not sustainable for pets.com in 2000 but one could hardly fault customers for taking advantage of such foolishness.

Let's set aside any moral/ethical implications of ab/using free services for a moment.

The problem for you as a customer is that once the service closes it might take some time to find a new service.

Second, your time is valuable too. Making multiple free accounts to save $10 a month is an activity which might make perfect sense for a poor college student but would draw comparisons with Mr. Burns if you are a middle-aged high wage earner.

It took a while for amazon.com to get into pet food business.

When del.icio.us became slow and uncared for it took some time for me to find pinboard .

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