41–50 of 60 posts
Honestly it is a breach of social contract, maybe launching another product would've been a better solution. I don't use facebook anymore for that reason interface became kind of irritating. Everytime I intend to popup a chat window I don't know exactly what to expect.
my 2c
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http://archiveteam.org/index.php?title=Urlteam Defunct URL shorteners: tr.im xs.md 4url.cc litturl.com chod.sk - Appears non-incremental, not resolving gonext.org - not resolving ix.it - Not resolving jijr.com - Doesn't appear to be a shortener, now parked kissa.be - "Kissa.be url shortener service is shutdown" kurl.us - Parked. miklos.dk - Doesn't appear guessable: http://miklos.dk/!z7bA6a - "Vi arbejder på sagen...…
So bit.ly tried to do something about this a while back by helping to found http://archive.org/details/301works
I use bit.ly for shorting links and tracking stats just like the article mentions. It used to work great for that. Paste a link, :boom: it's shortened, and I can press a button to copy. The only thing that would make it better is if I didn't have to click copy afterwards. Now, I have to click "add bitmark" (and figure out what the heck that is), paste the link, add an optional note, click save, then click copy before…
(checked only 2 hours after this post)
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> When was the last time somebody appealed to the alleged wisdom of the "silent majority" to support anything worth supporting? Nixon? Falwell? Everyone claims that the silent majority supports their position. See Occupy for a recent example. Suggesting that everyone is wrong seems a bit strong.
No, I wasn't suggesting that everyone is wrong. Rather, appealing to the "silent majority" without offering any independent arguments assumes that the majority must be right, which is just as fallacious as assuming that the majority must be wrong. IIRC the Occupy movement didn't argue that the 99% is right because it's the 99%. Rather, the argument was that there are serious socioeconomic problems that affect as much…
Not so fast. Occupy also claims to know something about solutions to those problems.
> Contrast that with the usual conservative bullshit about how hard-working citizens are too busy with their own productive lives to participate in protests, which implies that silence is a virtue.
How about a checkable cite to said "bullshit" from an actual conservative? Citing someone criticizing that stance doesn't count.
I use bit.ly for shorting links and tracking stats just like the article mentions. It used to work great for that. Paste a link, :boom: it's shortened, and I can press a button to copy. The only thing that would make it better is if I didn't have to click copy afterwards. Now, I have to click "add bitmark" (and figure out what the heck that is), paste the link, add an optional note, click save, then click copy before…
Rick
I use bit.ly for shorting links and tracking stats just like the article mentions. It used to work great for that. Paste a link, :boom: it's shortened, and I can press a button to copy. The only thing that would make it better is if I didn't have to click copy afterwards. Now, I have to click "add bitmark" (and figure out what the heck that is), paste the link, add an optional note, click save, then click copy before…
With delicious being totally dead, I think it is worth having at a new bookmarking service (haven't checked this yet myself).
Remember bit.ly went down because the Libyan government was not amused about some content? (Not sure whether it was bit.ly, but it was some .ly URL-shortener).
Buy a short domain. Run your own URL-Shortener. It is not that hard and you'll have complete control over the interface and all the data and most importantly: the domain. Remember bit.ly went down because the Libyan government was not amused about some content? (Not sure whether it was bit.ly, but it was some .ly URL-shortener).
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You don't. You just look at the numbers and look for signs of people loving the change.
Exactly. It's ok to lose half your users, if the other half are worth 10x as much because of the change. This article describes how Meetup went through this and lost, 95% of their user activity overnight... and also incidentally became profitable. http://37signals.com/svn/posts/2751-scott-heiferman-looks-ba... My comments: http://swombat.com/2011/1/26/meetup-charging-bet-the-company
It's easy to judge others without knowing all the facts, but I'll admit I don't like the way Meetup handled that transition.
Taking away something from users always seems like a bad idea. I prefer to do it in a way that keeps existing users happy.
Even today, the copy for the organiser fees on Meetup.com is very strange:
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Did you know? Organizers pay Organizer Dues. Learn More (link)
Yep, Meetup Group Organizers pay Organizer Dues (as little as $12 a month). Some Organizers choose to share this cost with their members.
Meetup is the best for organizing real, face-to-face Meetups!
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Instead of making the user feel good about the purchase, they are making them begrudgingly pay "dues".
And they hide the pricing info in weird fine print. You don't even know how much exactly you're paying until after you've set up a group.
I don't know if they've tried it but their business model could be freemium simply based on the number of members of a meetup group, instead of some other obscure features.
The way I see the numbers in the SVN post is that they got 5% conversion to premium, which is fantastic. I'd bet that almost all organisers who stayed had reasonably large meetup groups. By staying free for small groups, Meetup could have probably avoided losing 95% of the activity and still stayed profitable, while accomplishing their stated goal of "Meetups everywhere about most everything".
It's also funny that they cite Craigslist as an inspiration - a site which is almost completely free, with a tiny sliver of premium features.
Edit: To add to an already long comment:
Meetup charges a measly $19 per month. My local meditation group of 20 people collected more than that every week just by asking members nicely to contribute a dollar each for the tea and biscuits.
I think Meetup is hurting their business and vision by being too small-minded.