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Show HN: Expensive Chat – Pay one cent per letter

expensive.chat

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Re: Show HN: Expensive Chat – Pay one cent per letter

#11
post #9

Is there a micropayment service he could have used, to avoid micropayments showing up on a bank statement? Do any such services event exist? Is this PCI compliant, since CC numbers are typed on his page?

I thought it might just pretend to charge you, but I typed in some bogus numbers with a valid checksum, and it was rejected.

Re: Show HN: Expensive Chat – Pay one cent per letter

#12
post #3

Hi all. About 2.5 years ago I created Highscore Money. I was looking at pay-to-play games and wondered what would happen if you'd take it to the extreme. The result was just a leaderboard you'd pay your way into. Whatever you pay, that's your score. Today, I'm launching a new social experiment. A chatroom where you pay for every message you send. Normally chatrooms can get messy quick, because there's no cost to send…

Every message so far is some form of test. And what else would you expect? Nobody will care to continue chatting if there is no purpose uniting the room, especially when the more you participate the worse off you are. What are you hoping to achieve here? Or is this just a useless gimmick to get you a couple bucks?

Re: Show HN: Expensive Chat – Pay one cent per letter

#13
post #10
post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What makes this a social experiment rather than a simple cash grab? Are you donating all the money to a charity?

What makes this different than any other business idea that legally convinces customers to part with their money?

The same as the difference between any other business idea that legally convinces customers to part with their money, and any social experiment.

Re: Show HN: Expensive Chat – Pay one cent per letter

#16
post #3

Hi all. About 2.5 years ago I created Highscore Money. I was looking at pay-to-play games and wondered what would happen if you'd take it to the extreme. The result was just a leaderboard you'd pay your way into. Whatever you pay, that's your score. Today, I'm launching a new social experiment. A chatroom where you pay for every message you send. Normally chatrooms can get messy quick, because there's no cost to send…

I see a following potential issue: when it becomes popular, company advertising product is much more likely to spend $1 than the average user.

Interestingly enough that should hold true regardless of the price (assuming popularity, and very low risk that this is all just generated by a single person). Because users who spend more money are a more valuable target.

Re: Show HN: Expensive Chat – Pay one cent per letter

#18
Reminds me of that 1000x1000 ad site from the 90's where you could buy an ad based on how many pixels you purchased. Allow someone to pay to set the chat room topic, the colour scheme, etc. Maybe some Rich instagram kids will throw some cash at it for bragging rights.
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