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MDN Plus

developer.mozilla.org

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Re: MDN Plus

#171

Post by ygjb »

truth_ wrote: post #157
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…

This was my exact thought after seeing this. Selling Deep Dives? Who would pay for that? I would always trust open, free deep dives under open scrutiny and criticism more than something behind a paywall. Even if this is from Mozilla. A premium chat room/forum would have been miles better.

A premium chat room or forum doesn't make more sense because the people Mozilla would be paying to staff that channel are already on several open forums and most are willing to answer questions (even if that answer is RTFM and a redirect to an MDN page).

Yes, they got rid of most of the team, bu the remaining team members that are there and pretty much all of the community contributors would quit if they were suddenly transitioned into paid tech support roles.

Re: MDN Plus

#172

Post by steve_adams_86 »

abraham wrote: post #131
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.

I’m fully alright with $5 - I saw $10 and immediately thought $5 would be reasonable. If any MDN folks are reading - $10 seems a bit too steep. Especially since this is in US $, it would seemingly put this service out of reach for a lot of people. Perhaps that’s not a concern to the foundation, but works against the principles of the open web in my mind.

Re: MDN Plus

#173

Post by edu »

gilrain wrote: post #142
abraham wrote: post #136

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

In the mean time, people are being charged different amounts. They are literally charging different people different amounts. You might think that isn't a big deal, but how can you insist it isn't the case?

They're are not charging anything to anybody yet, you can get in the waitlist and answer a survey which explicitly asks if you think the price is to high, fair or to low.

Moreover next to the price there's a disclaimer that the "Price is subject to change".

To me it seems that they're just running an experiment to determine what's the price they should put to the service, which seems smart and correct.

Re: MDN Plus

#174

Post by HerminaC »

mgkimsal wrote: post #110

A few random thoughts here: * some better tools for searching, tagging, tracking my history, etc to allow me to better use and self organize their docs on 'mdn plus' would be a useful service. it may also give them some more insight on how people are using it and what areas are of bigger utilization. * tools to allow me to ask private questions in areas of their docs, with some prioritization for answers/responses. *…

Thanks for this, it is very insightful. We have considered part of them. Glad to hear you signed up to the waitlist:)

Re: MDN Plus

#175

Post by HerminaC »

steve_adams_86 wrote: post #172
abraham wrote: post #131

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

I’m fully alright with $5 - I saw $10 and immediately thought $5 would be reasonable. If any MDN folks are reading - $10 seems a bit too steep. Especially since this is in US $, it would seemingly put this service out of reach for a lot of people. Perhaps that’s not a concern to the foundation, but works against the principles of the open web in my mind.

We are indeed reading this feedback. And I get your point - thanks!

Re: MDN Plus

#176

Post by alphabravoB »

asciimov wrote: post #51

I find hiding all of these articles behind a walled garden a little distasteful. I remember the times when I couldn't have afforded access to such information. Back then, this kind of stuff would have been published in a magazine, and that magazine would have been on the rack of my local bookstore, where I could have flipped through it to decide if it was worth my money.

That magazine would have charged a subscription fee right?

You can "flip" through MDN's other (free) articles, or the excerpts they've provided here to decide if it's worth your money.

How is reading free content on your phone harder than walking to a bookstore? (Also this seems like a paywall, not a walled garden.)

I remember those times too, but there were no magazines for me to flip through to learn CSS float-based/table-based layouts. I had to look at ::shudders:: W3Schools.

Re: MDN Plus

#177

Post by webmaven »

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…

> 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?)

Sure. They're often called "ebooks".

Re: MDN Plus

#178

Post by webmaven »

moosebear847 wrote: post #168
gilrain wrote: post #119

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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?

If you sold ice cream on the street and needed to figure out how to become profitable, would you be so opposed to trying out selling at $5 one day and $7 the next? Or would this be too unfair to the people that paid $5? It's the intent I guess. The bartender story seems to imply a bad reason for the discrepancy (some type of unfair discrimination), while in this case it's to find out if you can charge more to eg capt…

Testing different prices on different days doesn't give you as much confidence (price sensitivity can vary by day of the week, weather, etc.).

Then there are tests that would be hard to run even on different days, like doubling your nominal price and splashing a "today only 50% off" or "buy one get one free" offer.

Real-world price testing is so much harder to pull off, it isn't as common, which is part of the reason web A/B tests seem jarring when the curtain is pulled back.

Re: MDN Plus

#179

Post by hyko »

Why is every paid for service called “Something Plus” these days? Who started this trend?
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