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Why Lichess will always be free

lichess.org

161–170 of 477 posts

Re: Why Lichess will always be free

#161
post #132

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Gross avg. wage in France is $42700[1] if calculated with 12 months and no variable benefits. Mean would be more interesting, but I don't seem to easily find it. It might sound weirdly low for someone in IT in the USA, but first, not everyone commands FAANG sales, and second, wages in the EU are comparatively low. With some seniority, you can rise to $100k relatively easily, but you have to sell your soul to either s…

FAANG salaries in the EU / UK can be nearly as high as in the US though, which in some locations does drive up the compensation for all SWEs.

Based on StackOverflow dev survey, EU salaries are roughly 60% of what you get in the US. You'll be hard-pressed to find equivalent positions paying the same in both regions.

Re: Why Lichess will always be free

#162

> There is absolutely nothing positive about advertisements on websites from the perspective of their users. They eat up valuable screen space and bandwidth for something that nobody wants to see. They often manipulate and misinform. They have even been the source of security vulnerabilities many times in the past. While I share the loathing of modern Ads as a service or whatever the technical name for giving Google/…

From the text you quoted:

> There is absolutely nothing positive about advertisements on websites from the perspective of their users.

From your response:

> I think that is a legit way to get a little income without burdening my users.

The former puts users first; the latter puts them last. There’s a chasm between “what do they want” and “what will they bear”.

Re: Why Lichess will always be free

#163
Would be interesting to see how much money the people here saying Lichess shouldn’t be free or should serve ads, have actually donated to Lichess if they use the site and are so concerned with their sustainability.

Lichess has been live for over a decade, they are a proven success.

Re: Why Lichess will always be free

#164
I like lichess, it is my first go to website to play chess, but for-profit models also have their advantages. For example in chess.com, they pay grandmasters to be there, and one can learn a lot from grandmasters. They earn money, and invest them back so the site can be even better. So I think neither model is wrong, or inherently better than the other.

Re: Why Lichess will always be free

#165
post #162

> There is absolutely nothing positive about advertisements on websites from the perspective of their users. They eat up valuable screen space and bandwidth for something that nobody wants to see. They often manipulate and misinform. They have even been the source of security vulnerabilities many times in the past. While I share the loathing of modern Ads as a service or whatever the technical name for giving Google/…

From the text you quoted: > There is absolutely nothing positive about advertisements on websites from the perspective of their users. From your response: > I think that is a legit way to get a little income without burdening my users. The former puts users first; the latter puts them last. There’s a chasm between “what do they want” and “what will they bear”.

I can't tell you how much I love this comment. Thank you. :-)

Re: Why Lichess will always be free

#166

> There is absolutely nothing positive about advertisements on websites from the perspective of their users. They eat up valuable screen space and bandwidth for something that nobody wants to see. They often manipulate and misinform. They have even been the source of security vulnerabilities many times in the past. While I share the loathing of modern Ads as a service or whatever the technical name for giving Google/…

You are missing the point. Lichess is creating a very strong competitive advantage by positioning their platform as ad free. Want to put this to a test? Imagine if you were to create a competitor and you also wanted to run ads, now imagine you will be competing with an extremely successful project that people love that doesn’t run ads so you will never be able to offer a better experience to their users. Lichess is u…

You're pretty much describing chess.com

Re: Why Lichess will always be free

#168

I just wish Lichess had more accurate ratings

What do you mean by "accurate"? Compared to chess.com? FIDE? USCF? It really makes no sense comparing ratings between different pools. None of them are more accurate, they are just different.

'accurate' is definitely the wrong term. I just meant I wished Lichess ratings translated more accurately to FIDE ratings.

Re: Why Lichess will always be free

#169
post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ads are an attack on our attention. When I go to a website, I decide to direct my attention to this website, because I believe it will offer something of interest to me. Obviously things don't come for free, somebody has to pay for it, but the issue is that as a user, I didn't agree to getting my attention diverted. The trade isn't done upfront and by the time I see the ad, it's already too late. There is also a coll…

> Ads are an attack on our attention. That may well be true, but let me tell you a story. I recently got into binge watching some old TV shows I enjoyed as a kid, like What's My Line and a few others. But most of the YouTube copies have the commercials stripped out! The few videos that have the old commercials are a blast. The Remington Rand Univac Electronic Brain. The Remington Rand Shaver! And as we all know, 9 ou…

As propaganda ages and stops being an effective meme-weapon, the propaganda fades and the art shined through. Old, obsolete ads for dead products that you look up out of curiosity are mostly harmless.

Still doesn't mean I'm not installing and updating my adblocker!

Re: Why Lichess will always be free

#170
post #137

So many comments failing to grasp the idea of someone wanting his job/passion to be publicly available at the cost of him not getting rich. So sad.

What else did you expect on a ~~hacker's~~ founder's site? Make a billion and retire before hitting 20, that's the goal.
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