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Here's how I deal with users who steal

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Re: Here's how I deal with users who steal

#61

Post by stephp »

stephp wrote: post #60
mVChr wrote: post #32

One purpose of getting users to sign up 5 friends for a free account is to get more people using the service. One purpose of allowing the scammers to get away with it is to be able to write a blog post about their novel approach that will in turn get more people using the service. I'm not saying that's the prime motive, but it seems like the goal is met either way.

My knee-jerk response was equally cynical. Something about saying, "Look at this 'good thing' I'm about to do!"... Why not do the thing and see what happens first before making an announcement? It's good clickbait either way; just then the article would have some substance and not be so cliche feel-goody. Am I a bad person for thinking this??

Also: anyone who has freelanced knows that those clients who are most reluctant to pay are the worst people to work with, right?

So why do we assume that everyone trying to cheat his system is Tiny Tim? lol

Maybe it's not good to reward them for trying to cheat? Maybe this enables entitled people to keep on feeling entitled to everything for free? Just saying. I get a little bothered when this sort of thing is met with no criticism at all. Like, he's giving something away for free? He is better than us! If only we all were so noble! lol

Re: Here's how I deal with users who steal

#63

Post by caf »

jackweirdy wrote: post #20
nostromo wrote: post #8

Interesting that the "scholarship" (free) plan isn't mentioned on the homepage. It seems you have to try and steal the product before being offered the free plan. I also like the subtle dig, "if you can't afford it." I've certainly pirated things myself. If iTunes asked me, "We noticed you've pirated The Walking Dead. If you can't afford $3, click here to get it for free." By reframing it as charity I might be shamed…

RE no homepage mention of it: I suspect there are those who would try to get it for free, regardless of how much it costs. It's probably more successful in converting those who wouldn't have paid in the first place - IE by reminding them that they've been "caught out". Having said that, no homepage mention may be turning away the honest users who might genuinely be unable to afford it. Only offering a discount to tho…

This - rewarding deviousness - troubled me about the system too.

Perhaps, instead of explicitly mentioning the Scholarship accounts on the homepage, there could be text along lines of "Struggling to get by and can't afford it? Email us and we'll see what we can do."

Re: Here's how I deal with users who steal

#64

Post by rokhayakebe »

ars wrote: post #9
nostromo wrote: post #8

Interesting that the "scholarship" (free) plan isn't mentioned on the homepage. It seems you have to try and steal the product before being offered the free plan. I also like the subtle dig, "if you can't afford it." I've certainly pirated things myself. If iTunes asked me, "We noticed you've pirated The Walking Dead. If you can't afford $3, click here to get it for free." By reframing it as charity I might be shamed…

What if someone can afford it, but isn't willing to? To me that means the price is too high, so maybe also let them set their own price?

I come from a "relatively" poor country with very poor musicians. A country where many national celebrities probably do not make the equivalent of what an engineer makes in San Francisco. However I am sure every last one of them can afford $19.99/year.

Re: Here's how I deal with users who steal

#65

Post by ced83fra »

It's a good idea. People don't want to think they can't afford it, so they will probably pay for it.

However, I think another pricing plan could be great : It costs virtually 0/year, BUT, 50% of the first $40 of royalties are taken by the site, and the rest sent to the user. Thus the user can still see he is earning something from the first track sold.

Re: Here's how I deal with users who steal

#67

Post by Amadou »

thecodemonkey wrote: post #66

I was actually wondering how to detection works. Just checking if all users have the same email domain name (with the exception of a white list such as gmail, hotmail, etc.)? Or flagging users that are using mailinator/5minutemail/whatever?

He's probably got a handful of tools in the bag, but the first on my list would be to cross-reference IP address with invites. If one ip address signs up all/most of the invites then that is a pretty big clue.

Re: Here's how I deal with users who steal

#68

Post by jacalata »

rosser wrote: post #48
fomojola wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Probably less than the felony she may have gotten.

Shoplifting isn't typically a felony — at least at a grocery store.

In Florida, shoplifting over $300 of goods is a felony. The article I found said 'about $300 worth of goods' so it's not clear whether it would have been a felony.

Re: Here's how I deal with users who steal

#69

Post by ruswick »

I dislike the comparison that the OP draws between scholarships and the given example of the officer buying food for the shoplifter. In the case of the latter, the officer is providing an additional opportunity for the woman by purchasing groceries that she otherwise wouldn't have been able to afford. In the case of the OP, the users making artificial accounts receive exactly the same service at the same price, and so no opportunity is being generated.

Re: Here's how I deal with users who steal

#70

Post by wpietri »

josh2600 wrote: post #17

Everytime stuff like this comes up, I think of Cory Doctorow's excellent essay, "All Complex Ecosystems have Parasites" http://craphound.com/complexecosystems.txt If you pave over your lawn when you get your first weed, you may never see the beautiful unexpected mutants that weed might create. We wrestled a lot with this at 2600hz (and I think all open-source companies do). When your clients use your systems in ways…

Great point. My cautionary example for fighting people who use your system the "wrong" way is Friendster. If they had paid attention to their users, they could have been Facebook. But instead they put a lot of energy into banning people who were "doing it wrong".

The way I try to look at it is that a company is supposed to be serving the users, not the other way around.

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