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I would rather see my books get pirated than this

janefriedman.com

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Re: I would rather see my books get pirated than this

#401

Post by dylan604 »

eropple wrote: post #391
dylan604 wrote: post #117

Earlier quoted context omitted.

that's the part that I love love love. society has gotten to this ridiculous follower stage that people seem to think it is a personal connection. maybe i've just spent too much time too close to the ad agency world to see how nasty they are, but anytime i see some random person on the internet that i do not personally know recommending anything, i immediately assume they are paid for that "recommendation". too much…

I'm currently noodling on a blog website and I'm thinking about adding a "recommendations" page largely in an anti-influencer sort of way--any affiliate marketing money is pretty incidental to somebody working in tech, but I want companies that make stuff that's good and valuable to stick around and continue to make stuff, so I want a way to spread the good news in a credible manner.

Then don’t use sponsored links. If you’re making money off of the recommendation in any form, it loses credibility for people that care. Otherwise, you’re just like all of those listicles that exist for no reason than a way to use affiliate links.

Re: I would rather see my books get pirated than this

#403

Post by HideousKojima »

phpisthebest wrote: post #366
prmoustache wrote: post #363

Earlier quoted context omitted.

People might revert to buy in person. I mean you get scammed maybe twice by a company, then buy somewhere else. You quickly realize that it is better spending 3-4 times the amount of money for something that will last 10 years than buying stuff that do not work or keep breaking after a few months/years. I am too poor to be able to afford buying cheap stuff.

If that was going to happen, it already would have. Most people still just buy the cheapest version of an item they are looking for.

Most people buy the cheapest version because they don't have a reliable way of knowing if the more expensive items are actually higher quality. It's a "market for lemons" problem:

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Market_for_Lemons

Re: I would rather see my books get pirated than this

#404

Post by squeaky-clean »

mattigames wrote: post #217
shinycode wrote: post #159

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Some people commented here on HN they created bots that played along as humans by answering coherent comments on random posts to train their AI with the ability to argue and dig into the discussion. There’s a thin line between this and fake posts

It seems they were talking about reddit content before 2023

It's been very noticeable since at least the 2016 election.

Re: I would rather see my books get pirated than this

#405

Post by mcphage »

kccqzy wrote: post #242
mcphage wrote: post #213

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The reason is that Apple specifically requires all digital only purchases to only use in-app payment and must give Apple 30%. You are not allowed to process digital purchases through an app with your own payment system. You also can’t tell people that or link them to the website. > This does not apply to physical goods. I don't really get this division other than "it's what Apple could get away with". As far as the…

According to Apple's logic, they are providing more service than just payment processing.

Right, and they do. But if I buy an eBook from Amazon, or I buy a physical book from Amazon, what is the difference in the services that Apple is providing, that explains why Apple wants their cut of the eBook but don't want their cut of the physical book?

Re: I would rather see my books get pirated than this

#406

Post by sneak »

wombat-man wrote: post #397
ben_w wrote: post #368

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm already switching to buying in person, though in my case because of the delivery service usually redirecting to depots further away than the shops selling the same items.

Yeah, I'd rather go to target or something and choose from the 3 spatulas they have then spend any time trying to figure out which of the 1000 listings are good on amazon. It's just less work.

It's not less time, however. It's easier and cheaper to buy all of the top 5 spatulas on amazon (and throw 4 away) than to drive to a strip mall and find parking.

Re: I would rather see my books get pirated than this

#407

Post by zanellato19 »

e12e wrote: post #387
grogenaut wrote: post #172

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Step 1: go to amazon on a real computer and find book Step 2: click buy Step 3: in the post purchase confirmation it says "Want to start reading right away?" and a dropdown of your devices with a deliver button. It's a kids device they (and you) don't want your kid to be sent 50 shades of gray accidentally. The other flow is buy book. Go to kindle, "sync and check for new items". But again, it's a kids book, don't wa…

> It's a kids device they (and you) don't want your kid to be sent 50 shades of gray accidentally. It's just a book. I'd hope most parents would rejoice if their kid read well enough to get through that, or Mein Kamp.

I certainly hope not.

Re: I would rather see my books get pirated than this

#408

Post by elkhadiy »

red-iron-pine wrote: post #385
nomat wrote: post #44

I think this is the future of computers for people. they will open their phone and say "hey siri get this book or computer or car" and the browser will show them a bunch of made up products generated by an AI and they'll get the product drop shipped from china and it'll be a shitty counterfeit just like the $5 256GB USB drives. But they won't know because when you look for reviews, the review websites will also be ge…

> But they won't know because when you look for reviews, the review websites will also be generated just for you, filled with AI-made reviews and users. The entire internet will just be a computer that guesses what you want and shows you its best guess as the truth. a little matrix-y. dead internet theory -- the idea that the internet will eventually be mostly or entirely bots talking to bots https://en.wikipedia.org…

Very interesting! Bots roaming freely generating content and manipulating consumers sounds like early stages of the net beyond the BlackWall in the Cyberpunk universe post DataKrash. (just in case someone might be interested in sci-fi reading on the subject)

Re: I would rather see my books get pirated than this

#409

Post by sesteel »

prmoustache wrote: post #363
labster wrote: post #94

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We’re in a race to the bottom. There’s no way a company selling legitimate products will be able to compete or grow a customer base in the AI future, because we’ll be swimming in garbage.

People might revert to buy in person. I mean you get scammed maybe twice by a company, then buy somewhere else. You quickly realize that it is better spending 3-4 times the amount of money for something that will last 10 years than buying stuff that do not work or keep breaking after a few months/years. I am too poor to be able to afford buying cheap stuff.

What Amazon is missing is buyers. Actual professional buyers who evaluate products and make determinations if products meet standards and deserves to be placed in front of customers.

Re: I would rather see my books get pirated than this

#410

Post by INGSOCIALITE »

andrei_says_ wrote: post #118
labster wrote: post #94

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We’re in a race to the bottom. There’s no way a company selling legitimate products will be able to compete or grow a customer base in the AI future, because we’ll be swimming in garbage.

We swim in garbage already (looking at amazon) but bhphoto and sweetwater still exist.

Sweet water is great - they even have a dedicated rep call you a little after your order arrives to make sure you’re happy with the product and that it’s just what you wanted.

Plus they send you candy

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