Earlier quoted context omitted.
It's a personal choice. I respect their choice.
Working for free devalues the work of others and give them an excuse to not even offer pay next time.
There is nothing wrong with being nice to others.
Why don't you accept donations?
81–90 of 193 posts
Re: Why don't you accept donations?
#82Earlier quoted context omitted.
Browsing the Web of 2021 with a mobile hotspot on a desktop is impossible without an ad blocker. There is so much shit on web pages now that: (a) site assume you're on a desktop and have infinite bandwidth, (b) on a mobile connection the pages take forever to complete, and (c) the pages use up all of your mobile data allowance. I'm ethically against taking money away from people who want to generate revenue through a…
> I'm ethically against taking money away from people who want to generate revenue through advertising Why do you say that? They're the ones who sent you HTML for free. They assumed you'd look at the ads, but you have absolutely zero moral obligation to validate that assumption. If you have a magazine, you can totally rip out the ads and throw them in the trash. If you have a newspaper, you can cut out the articles y…
The assumption is that most are not ripping the ads out of the magazine without seeing them at all. The assumption and social contract was the page is sent to you with ads and you take in all of it.
You can make all sorts of loose statements like this then draw the line where you feel it’s wrong. It will still be arbitrary.
To continue stretching examples. Developers chose to release software as is. Through some combo of your reasoning above, is it okay to pirate/crack software? Most of the time HNers will be against software piracy but for blocking ads.
I care more about the obvious social contracts in place and the obviousness of creators are supporting what they created by showing ads or charging for their software.
Another example was people getting mad at someone for wanting to split a Stratchery subscription. One big point was it’s against the TOS. Some of those people surely block ads and would not care if TOSs say you can’t. I actually find the Stratchery situation sympathetic because I believe the person was unemployed. Similarly if you have a super old computer or limited data dude to financial constraints. Yeah, that is an exception where the morals make sense.
However going against Stratchery, a pretty small time operation by splitting the cost amongst some people for one login is obviously not cool for the average middle class on up person.
> If they want money, they're free to return HTTP 402 Payment Required.
This is not true in the real world. The amount of backlash you can get for doing that will almost never be worth it. False positives are an issue as well.
Similarly, software that requires you to always be online and aggressively verifies you have paid for said software which ends up creating some friction, is frowned upon too.
Or Stratchery suspending you or sending similar headers for logging in via IPs far from one another. The false positives would be lead to a Streisand Effect
Re: Why don't you accept donations?
#83I can't think of too many pieces of software that have improved my life as significantly as uBlock Origin in the last decade. It's been an absolute godsend.
I agree to the point that I can't imagine using the internet without uBlock installed.
I don’t install anything on my work computer that I can’t say 100% is used for work so I could never justify uBlock. It does make a HUGE difference. The web without it is a giant mess.
Re: Why don't you accept donations?
#84There is nothing wrong with being rewarded for your work. There could be uBlock Origin Pro for people who want to support it. It can offer no other feature other than a Pro icon.
I'd totally pay for that.
Re: Why don't you accept donations?
#85Earlier quoted context omitted.
> I'm ethically against taking money away from people who want to generate revenue through advertising Why do you say that? They're the ones who sent you HTML for free. They assumed you'd look at the ads, but you have absolutely zero moral obligation to validate that assumption. If you have a magazine, you can totally rip out the ads and throw them in the trash. If you have a newspaper, you can cut out the articles y…
The assumption is that most are not ripping the ads out of the magazine without seeing them at all. The assumption and social contract was the page is sent to you with ads and you take in all of it. You can make all sorts of loose statements like this then draw the line where you feel it’s wrong. It will still be arbitrary. To continue stretching examples. Developers chose to release software as is. Through some comb…
>> The assumption and social contract was the page is sent to you with ads and you take in all of it
This is the antithesis of what I want the internet to be, so opt me out of that, please, because I'm going to come hither and taketh in that which I care to taketh in, that and nothing else.
Re: Why don't you accept donations?
#86Earlier quoted context omitted.
I've done a similar thing with a few past employers after I've moved on. "Hey, can you explain this code to the new person?". In some cases, I'd be glad to do a 1 hour call or whatever. They frequently ask me to submit a bill for my time and I always refuse. I don't want to turn into some kind of staff augmentation and be at their beck and call "because they are paying". Way better to think of it as a gift and I get…
I generally would do the same thing. I'm amazed at all the hostility towards this. And most importantly, it doesn't read to me like you're being taken for a ride. Much better to help if you want, dictate your terms, generate good will and maintain the relationship etc than get a few hundred dollars, unless you're actually trying to make a living that way. Even from a purely selfish perspective, long term you're appro…
Exactly, I've never spent more than 5 hours on a previous company doing this. However, it allows me to not burn bridges and one of the reasons it never goes beyond 5 hours is that this approach doesn't lead to a situation where I am "working for them".
Re: Why don't you accept donations?
#87There is nothing wrong with being rewarded for your work. There could be uBlock Origin Pro for people who want to support it. It can offer no other feature other than a Pro icon.
There's nothing wrong with not accepting rewards for your work.
Re: Why don't you accept donations?
#88Earlier quoted context omitted.
I agree to the point that I can't imagine using the internet without uBlock installed.
I don’t install anything on my work computer that I can’t say 100% is used for work so I could never justify uBlock. It does make a HUGE difference. The web without it is a giant mess.
My company installs uBlock on all laptops by default
Re: Why don't you accept donations?
#89Earlier quoted context omitted.
> I'm ethically against taking money away from people who want to generate revenue through advertising Why do you say that? They're the ones who sent you HTML for free. They assumed you'd look at the ads, but you have absolutely zero moral obligation to validate that assumption. If you have a magazine, you can totally rip out the ads and throw them in the trash. If you have a newspaper, you can cut out the articles y…
The assumption is that most are not ripping the ads out of the magazine without seeing them at all. The assumption and social contract was the page is sent to you with ads and you take in all of it. You can make all sorts of loose statements like this then draw the line where you feel it’s wrong. It will still be arbitrary. To continue stretching examples. Developers chose to release software as is. Through some comb…
> The assumption and social contract was the page is sent to you with ads and you take in all of it.
Nobody ever signed any social contract. You can't even navigate to the page's actual terms of service without being subjected to ads and surveillance capitalism. As if anyone even reads those terms to begin with.
Their invalid assumptions are their problem. Nobody else needs to worry about this. It's their business model, it's up to them to make it work. If they send us ads, we're gonna delete them. It's up to them to deal with that fact.
> is it okay to pirate/crack software?
Of course. DRM is a defect and cracks literally fix products. "Pirates" have the superior version of the software. You'd think it would be the other way around. Pretty sad.
> Most of the time HNers will be against software piracy but for blocking ads.
I'm against copyright itself. "Piracy" is not a concept that should even exist. It's how things would naturally be without the illusions provided by copyright.
Re: Why don't you accept donations?
#90Earlier quoted context omitted.
That just sounds like you're being taken for a ride
I do a similar thing when a friend asks me a favor that is going to take enough of my time, think the classic "Can you help me build my PC?" or "Something has happened to my computer! Can you fix it?" If I'm helping then I refuse any kind of money. I don't give guarantees or service like a business does, I don't want money like a business does. I do often ask that they try to learn from the experience, I'll gladly ex…
Close family I will do whatever.
Anyone else I am happy to sit right next to them, happy chat and advise, be a pair of extra hands as required.
But I won't sit there while they walk away and do anything else.
If it isn't worth THEIR time to fix it, it isn't worth mine.