MDN Plus • Hacker News Board

Re: MDN Plus

#131

Post by abraham » Thu, May 27, 2021, 4:12 PM UTC

sequoia wrote: post #122

I wish they’d clarify if the money is used to support MDN or not. I wouldn’t be opposed to supporting MDN patreon style, and if it comes with “perks” like articles, sure, why not. But I would do this to support MDNs core documentation , not because I’m dying for technical deep dives. That said $10/mo is a bit steep for me. And in any event, if they don’t make explicit that the money goes to support MDN upkeep and dev…

On one of my devices it lists $5/month so they seem to be testing different amounts.

Re: MDN Plus

#132

Post by baggachipz » Thu, May 27, 2021, 4:12 PM UTC

airstrike wrote: post #126

baggachipz wrote: post #87

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> As far as I understand, the MDN documenting the standard (HTML5, CSS, etc.) will stay freely accessible as it is. For now. Once you let the monetization genie out of the bottle, Death by a Thousand MBA's is almost certain.

This false equivalence between MBA degrees and poor management really has to stop. It's a pretty bigoted take and I'm always disappointed to see that on HN, even though I half expect it coming into most threads these days.

Found the MBA!

In all seriousness though, the MBA in and of itself isn't necessarily "bad". However, the "maximize shareholder value" mantra and the sheer volume of MBA's invading a company are the problem. There are so many now, every one of them looking for a way to appear valuable. The training cements this ever-increasing desire to wring more productivity and efficiency from an organization; the long-term effects of which are usually user-hostile. But it's a slow strangulation, so it never appears immediately sinister to anybody unless they've seen it happen before.

People are starting to come around to this, and coupled with the sheer volume of MBA's it's become a meme of sorts. It seems to me these days that "not all MBAs are greedy pricks, but all greedy pricks are MBAs".

Re: MDN Plus

#133

Post by dfabulich » Thu, May 27, 2021, 4:15 PM UTC

MDN Plus's plan to sell access to technical "deep dive" articles is not the right approach. (Can you think of anybody who makes real money selling deep dives on the web?)

We know how to do this "correctly." MDN Plus should be a VIP pass to access to the MDN team, via a private forum and/or chat room. Talk to (survey) the paying users for what new material they're interested in, and provide that.

This is how basically all Patreons work. People buy those subscriptions like hotcakes, they have excellent margins, and the subscribers are reliably very satisfied with the result.

Re: MDN Plus

#134

Post by ArcFeind » Thu, May 27, 2021, 4:19 PM UTC

015a wrote: post #115

Zababa wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't really understand how offering better content against money is worse than asking for money regularly like Wikipedia does (especially when they seem to just consume more and more money).

Because there are tons of people who cannot pay for services like this (lower class, students, third-world countries, etc), and learning how to build and deploy technology is powerful leverage to improving their quality of life.

I mean it's not like web development tutorials and blogs haven't filled the internet with free content for years to learn everything you could possibly want. freecodecamp will take you from nothing to hirable, for free.

Re: MDN Plus

#135

Post by JohnBooty » Thu, May 27, 2021, 4:19 PM UTC

Awesome. I'm happy to support MDN.

My only hope is that they make it a "pay what you wish" with $10/month as the minimum price.

Frankly I would be happy to support "regular" MDN in such a way as well. This is an important cornerstone for all front end developers. The promised "premium content" is a cherry on top, but is not necessary for them to have my support.

Re: MDN Plus

#136

Post by abraham » Thu, May 27, 2021, 4:20 PM UTC

gilrain wrote: post #119

paxys wrote: post #109

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I mean..aren't they doing exactly that?

They are naming different prices for different people. You walk into a bar and the guy in front of you orders a beer for $5. Looks good, so you order the same thing. The bartender says, "For you it's $10." Do you feel fairly treated?

They aren't charging people different amounts, they're testing waitlist signup interest at different amounts. Presumably once they gauge interest a single level will be applied to everyone.

Re: MDN Plus

#137

Post by tempest_ » Thu, May 27, 2021, 4:23 PM UTC

dfabulich wrote: post #133

MDN Plus's plan to sell access to technical "deep dive" articles is not the right approach. (Can you think of anybody who makes real money selling deep dives on the web?) We know how to do this "correctly." MDN Plus should be a VIP pass to access to the MDN team, via a private forum and/or chat room. Talk to (survey) the paying users for what new material they're interested in, and provide that. This is how basically…

Yeah, except didnt they just get rid of most of the team.

"Deep Dives" can be farmed out to contractors and you dont have to worry about paying employees.

Re: MDN Plus

#138

Post by ArcFeind » Thu, May 27, 2021, 4:25 PM UTC

Honestly blown away by all the comments being upset that a service with real costs is charging money to cover those costs. And the weak as shit excuses about why they won't pay money for this. It's like complaining that OnlyFans exists because pornhub is free.

It's $5/mo or $10/mo if you don't want to pay for it, there's the whole rest of the internet to get free web dev content from, not to mention the rest of MDN which they host and provide to you for free.

Re: MDN Plus

#139

Post by clusterfish » Thu, May 27, 2021, 4:27 PM UTC

gilrain wrote: post #119

paxys wrote: post #109

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I mean..aren't they doing exactly that?

They are naming different prices for different people. You walk into a bar and the guy in front of you orders a beer for $5. Looks good, so you order the same thing. The bartender says, "For you it's $10." Do you feel fairly treated?

Except you're not ordering anything here,just looking at an ad mentioning the expected price, subject to change.

Re: MDN Plus

#140

Post by zzakli » Thu, May 27, 2021, 4:28 PM UTC

> written by industry experts

And the featured post is by someone (RA) who is probably not going to contribute regularly to MDN Web Docs. I have plenty platforms to read RA's writings besides this service.

If this service is going to support the development of existing MDN Web Docs, I would pay for it. But i suspect most of the revenue will going to pay for these one-off experts.