Live data from Hacker News

Signal users can give a recurring monthly contribution

support.signal.org

141–150 of 226 posts

Re: Signal users can give a recurring monthly contribution

#141

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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"

> Prioritizing your market share over private gains of your users

Network effects make these virtually indistinguishable. If a network is unusable it doesn’t help anyone.

There may be an argument, however, for charging for the opt out.

Re: Signal users can give a recurring monthly contribution

#142

Earlier quoted context omitted.

“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”

"Non profit messenger's CEO prioritizes implementing his coin to gain an estimated $150 milion, hiding the app's source code from users, ignoring all other aspects of development, so I won't donate."

You seemed to miss the part where Marlinspike got richer off of Mobilecoin, throwing the company's resources at implementing it, instead of working on the product.

Re: Signal users can give a recurring monthly contribution

#143
There is real value to signal. I am debating contributing myself now that it appears to be a more commonly used application. As long as its not mandatory, I think it should be fine. I am saying that specifically because it was hard enough to 'lure' my family and friends there. They may not see the same value I do.

Re: Signal users can give a recurring monthly contribution

#144

Earlier quoted context omitted.

For what it is and how it contributes to me daily I don't believe it's high. $5/month for the peace of mind Signal provides is something I can make a case for. I subscribe to the $10/month level - because everyone in my circle uses it, and I pushed many of them in that direction. I want it to succeed, I want it to continue to improve, I want it to be available. I know I spend more than $10/month on other things that…

How did you get your friends to switch? I have tried and, dude, my group will just not change from their pre-installed messaging apps, except for 2 of them. They don't care that it's more secure (arguably) or that you can pull it up on your computer (my main reason for using it), they just have no interest.

I had some luck with a subset of friends but not all of them. A big group is still on Hangouts or whatever Google calls it now. My advice is you target 2 close friends and propose to try it out for a week. If you win them over then you can start working on more.

Software advocacy isn't easy by any means. Most people want to not shake the boat of their current habits especially since it will take effort and time to get accustomed.

Re: Signal users can give a recurring monthly contribution

#145
post #72

Reminder that Signal server source code is not fully released and the app is heavily dependent on google services to operate. Signal also takes measures against third party or unofficial apps. Whatever you say about privacy Signal is not an ally of user freedom.

What do you mean 'not fully released'? It's here: https://github.com/signalapp/Signal-Server

It's not complete, they made a blog post recently where they stated that they have closed source code in use.

I think it was about spam

Re: Signal users can give a recurring monthly contribution

#147

Reminder that Signal server source code is not fully released and the app is heavily dependent on google services to operate. Signal also takes measures against third party or unofficial apps. Whatever you say about privacy Signal is not an ally of user freedom.

> Whatever you say about privacy Signal is not an ally of user freedom.

Good reminder for those that don't know, but did anyone ever claim otherwise? From the very start, releasing the source code was meant exclusively as a way to ensure trust == security. It was never about software freedom - the only freedom the devs mentioned was freedom of speech (encryption and censorship-resistence).

Re: Signal users can give a recurring monthly contribution

#148
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.

Kinda hack, but if you choose a different currency, the tiers are lower. (With Revolut you can use almost any currency and FX fees are 0-0.5%).

For example with PLN min tier is 12 PLN = 2.64€

Re: Signal users can give a recurring monthly contribution

#149

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

> Prioritizing your market share over private gains of your users Network effects make these virtually indistinguishable. If a network is unusable it doesn’t help anyone. There may be an argument, however, for charging for the opt out.

Unusable is a big stretch

Re: Signal users can give a recurring monthly contribution

#150

They should sell the ability of creating an account not attached to a phone number. Pay $5, get a code that allows creating a single account, enter the code somewhere in the app to allow using a user name in place of the phone. This limits spam and, as this code can also be sent to another person, there is a way to hide the relationship between payer and final user. No need for cryptocoins, NFTs, or other stupid thin…

Requiring a phone number is literally my only complaint about Signal, I used to just use a Google Voice number but then I learned about TextNow and have been migrating away from Google as much as possible

https://www.textnow.com/how-it-works

Post reply on HN