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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

#91

Post by tempestn »

ballard wrote: post #86
caf wrote: post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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."

TL;DR - this is a shrewd play for a number of reasons. You don't understand, it's just business. Furthermore, the conversion of requiring people to beg via email to explain they're broke is next to zero. People won't do it. They'll take the POLR: fake accounts. Kicking them out also won't help: they can attack the brand and also if they succeed, the service looks like the bad guys. Furthermore, it builds stats by hav…

"Furthermore, the conversion of requiring people to beg via email to explain they're broke is next to zero. People won't do it."

Entirely true. But it would remove the conflict of offering the scholarship option only to people who cheat, which is the whole point. They can of course continue to also offer it to those who do, just like now.

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

#93

Post by nemothekid »

rattray wrote: post #82
forrestthewoods wrote: post #79

Earlier quoted context omitted.

+1 point for making the most entitled statement I've heard this week

that kind of sarcasm strikes me as needlessly acerbic. FWIW, his idea struck me as logical. I might be able to afford something that still doesn't make sense for me to buy, since I don't get eg; $20 of value from it. See econ101. But I'm not sure PWYW would be the solution here.

Setting your own price hardly works. Panera tried it for a while and while it was charitable, there were way more people who underpaid (that could actually pay) than people who would overpay. Now IIRC, they only do it once a year.

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

#94

Post by programminggeek »

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?

No, it means that some people are cheap and companies like Google have trained them that everything should be free and/or ad supported.

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

#95

Post by pcl »

ballard wrote: post #86
caf wrote: post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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."

TL;DR - this is a shrewd play for a number of reasons. You don't understand, it's just business. Furthermore, the conversion of requiring people to beg via email to explain they're broke is next to zero. People won't do it. They'll take the POLR: fake accounts. Kicking them out also won't help: they can attack the brand and also if they succeed, the service looks like the bad guys. Furthermore, it builds stats by hav…

I dunno... I've used an open-source license for IntelliJ in the past, and that took a lot more work than just sending an email. (Kudos, btw, to JetBrains for their great open-source licensing program!)

It's probably less work for me to send an email explaining why I think I deserve a free account than to tell the system to send emails to five email addresses that route to me, and then do whatever I need to do to validate them.

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

#96

Post by taftster »

femto wrote: post #18

How about adding an ongoing option to allow scholarship account holders to voluntarily convert to a full account and return their freebie to a pool, so it can be offered to another struggling musician? Such an option would allow users to treat a scholarship as a temporary measure, that they can chose to use, whilst getting established.

Ooh, I like this option much better than the author's. Nice thinking.

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

#97

Post by christopherryan »

GOSPEL ARTIST POSES NUDE!

Evon Latrail is the author of a children's book "When Mommy Went to Heaven". She wrote/recorded a few songs; "Lord Bless My Enemies. And, even has a song entitled, "Can't You See (Abortion Is Murder). She went Pro-life after having a abortion! Really???? Now here is a photo of her posing in chocolate as a "Swamp Girl". The word Hypocrite is floating around somewhere. This story has made front page news in the local paper. Go to Google or YouTube and search, Evon Latrail.

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

#98

Post by mooreds »

judk wrote: post #87
mooreds wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If someone can afford a product, but isn't willing to, then they should look elsewhere for the value provided by the product, or live without it. That's embedded in the definition of a market--sellers get to choose the price, buyers get to choose whether or not to buy.

Actually a market is a place to negotiate prices. Seller-fixed prices are an American curiosity.

Fair enough. But even in negotiated transactions, the seller sets the final price that they will or won't accept.

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

#99

Post by bemmu »

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…

A company I used to work for made bible software. You could browse different bible versions side-by-side, collect verses etc., designed for people seriously into it (like priests composing their sermon).

But some of these people would still copy the software instead of ordering the disk from us. We didn't really detect that, but the boss added a screen that just randomly pops up reminding the user that if you are running a copy now, remember that copying is WRONG.

We would get repenting phone calls from users begging to be forgiven.

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

#100

Post by wfunction »

dllthomas wrote: post #80
forrestthewoods wrote: post #78

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's a good thing a service to help individuals sell their music on a variety of online services isn't essential.

It might be, if making music is the only real way you have to make money. Of course, in that case I would hope that you would use your proceeds to pay the service pretty quickly.

Wait so if the only real way I made money was by theft, then that would make it "essential"?
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