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Signal users can give a recurring monthly contribution

support.signal.org

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131–140 of 226 posts

Re: Signal users can give a recurring monthly contribution

#131

Post by thesausageking »

Tepix wrote: post #5

I'd argue that $5/month is quite high. Not because Signal isn't useful, but because the actual incurred cost per user is much, much lower. Of course, not everyone is going to pay. But if Signal were to ask users to pay, say $10 per year , i'm sure there'd be a lot more payers.

If you lower the ask, you'll get more people to pay, but will it lead to more revenue in total?

In my experience, I don't think so. It's really hard to get users to pay for a free app. If you've gotten them over the activation energy required, it usually works better to ask for more. Users who contribute less also tend to churn more and cause more support burden. So you don't need just to convert 6x more at $10 / yr vs. $60 / yr but more like 10x. And 10x is really, really hard to do, ime. Again, the main thing you fight is getting users to pay anything at all.

Re: Signal users can give a recurring monthly contribution

#132

Post by imwillofficial »

WilTimSon wrote: post #20
aunty_helen wrote: post #15

I want nice things, so I’m going to donate. All those times when I’ve thought I would pay for service X if it meant not dealing with shitty dark pattern Y. Signal has kept their side of the deal, so now’s the time to pony up the dough. This and stack exchange would top the list of things I’m willing to pay for.

Has it? It kept source code outdated for a year while implementing support for an altcoin that their ex-CEO stands to profit from. All the while users were asking to implement stuff that's actually been requested for years. I like Signal as a product but my opinion of the company making it has soured pretty substantially.

“users were asking to implement stuff that's actually been requested for years.”

This is true of every app in the history of apps

Re: Signal users can give a recurring monthly contribution

#133

Post by imwillofficial »

MrDresden wrote: post #88

I had previously donated 2$ monthly for around 1.5 years through PayPal (through their webpage) and just recently noticed the badge system. Seeing that the minimum was 5$ left me with a bit of a bad taste in my mouth. I know, no one is forced to pay and 5$ for the service is not at all much. But what can I say. It left a bad taste in my mouth.

$3 would be worth it just to save time loggin in to PayPal to donate each month. (Or is there an automated way?)

Re: Signal users can give a recurring monthly contribution

#134

Post by loeg »

skyyler wrote: post #99
toyg wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

True, but you'll periodically be bombarded by donation drives instead... Money ruins everything, sadly. Where's my barter system...

I’m fine with that. Donation drives aren’t misleading. Donation drives don’t use shadow profiles. Donation drives don’t impact content. Donation drives don’t convince my grandma that she needs to send the IRS Target gift cards.

Wikipedia's donation drive is highly misleading.

https://www.dailydot.com/debug/wikipedia-endownemnt-fundrais...

Or the still salient https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WP:CANCER

Re: Signal users can give a recurring monthly contribution

#135

Post by imwillofficial »

pbasista wrote: post #85
shafyy wrote: post #4

I also started donating €10/month. I figured that I pay a lot more for other services that I use far less often and provide me far less value, so why not pay for this. Also got me to think about this topic a bit more and write this blog post: https://canolcer.com/post/pay-for-internet-stuff/

> I pay a lot more for other services that I use far less often and provide me far less value, so why not pay for this Is that the only reason why you would like to pay for this service? It seems irrational to me to justify an expense merely by the existence of other expenses.

Hate to break it to you, people are not rational.

Did you read the blog post? Not reading it… Seems irrational.

Re: Signal users can give a recurring monthly contribution

#136

Post by BrainsPachanga »

imwillofficial wrote: post #132
WilTimSon wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Has it? It kept source code outdated for a year while implementing support for an altcoin that their ex-CEO stands to profit from. All the while users were asking to implement stuff that's actually been requested for years. I like Signal as a product but my opinion of the company making it has soured pretty substantially.

“users were asking to implement stuff that's actually been requested for years.” This is true of every app in the history of apps

“Non profit messenger with limited resources is not working as if it had unlimited resources, so I won’t donate”

Re: Signal users can give a recurring monthly contribution

#138

Post by Karawebnetwork »

Tepix wrote: post #5

I'd argue that $5/month is quite high. Not because Signal isn't useful, but because the actual incurred cost per user is much, much lower. Of course, not everyone is going to pay. But if Signal were to ask users to pay, say $10 per year , i'm sure there'd be a lot more payers.

You can also make single donations called "signal boosts". For example, I try to throw them a little bit of money every now and then but would not go to a subscription.

Those are defaulted to 4 6 12 25 60 125 but you can enter a custom amount.

Re: Signal users can give a recurring monthly contribution

#139

Post by DavideNL »

Tepix wrote: post #5

I'd argue that $5/month is quite high. Not because Signal isn't useful, but because the actual incurred cost per user is much, much lower. Of course, not everyone is going to pay. But if Signal were to ask users to pay, say $10 per year , i'm sure there'd be a lot more payers.

> I'd argue that $5/month is quite high.

The minimum monthly amount is €2,66 here: https://signal.org/donate/

Re: Signal users can give a recurring monthly contribution

#140

Post by turminal »

JumpCrisscross wrote: post #117
Freak_NL wrote: post #114

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm fine with people not finding me automatically. If Signal wants to keep the low-resistance method of bulk-checking your contact's phone numbers, fine. Just give me the choice of joining without it.

> fine with people not finding me automatically That’s a private gain at the network’s cost. For a challenger, their decision to bar that albeit limited form of free-riding is perfectly rational. For a dominant network, I am much more sympathetic to the call for anonymity.

Prioritizing your market share over private gains of your users is precisely the thing that makes you "not an ally of user freedom"
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