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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

#51

Post by tacticus »

prawn wrote: post #22
sprite wrote: post #10

Why not just keep the first $19.99 of revenue if they haven't paid up front? If they are making money they can afford it.

Or why not give them the option to pay as well as offering the scholarship option, but noting that with the Scholarship account, their first $x9.99 will be withheld? If it's not successful for them, it costs them nothing up front. Little bit like how your can start tertiary study in Australia for free, but incur a HECS debt that begins to get paid once you're earning money.

Making it similar to the hecs (or fee-help as they now brand it) fees would be really cool of your first 100$ we will take nothing but of the next 100$ we will take 20c per dollar.

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

#54

Post by jakebellacera »

Cool idea, but I can't help but wonder if it'd be better to have a "pick your price" option versus just giving it outright for free. Noble, sure, but it would be interesting to see the trends associated with what users picked. Maybe they were only willing to spend $5? Who knows.

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

#55

Post by monkeyspaw »

hadem wrote: post #53

I'm curious how you define "bogus" referrals. New accounts with no activity? A non-activated account? Accounts created from temporary email providers (ie: Mailinaotr)?

Probably subsequent signups from the same IP address.

You could also put a cookie on the users computer, so you know if that cookie is present for 5 subsequent signups that have little/no activity, it's probably a cheater.

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

#56

Post by glassx »

hristov wrote: post #28

Since I am a little lazy, can someone explain to me why this service is necessary. Does apple not allow musicians to upload their music to itunes?

You need to fulfill some requirements to subscribe as a "publisher" [1]:

    Content Requirements:
     - At least 20 albums in your catalog
     - UPCs/EANs/JANs for all products you intend to distribute
     - ISRCs for all tracks you intend to distribute

    Financial Requirements:
     - A U.S. Tax ID
     - A valid iTunes Store account, with a credit card on file
     - Apple does not pay partners until they meet payment requirements and earning thresholds in each territory. You should consider this before applying to work directly with Apple as you may receive payments faster by working with an Apple-approved aggregator.
[1] https://itunesconnect.apple.com/WebObjects/iTunesConnect.woa...

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

#59

Post by unclebucknasty »

That's a great story, and a great bit of humanness behind it, but my personal experience is that people will defraud you out of business if you let them. They will take whatever you give them, and then some.

Most people are actually honest, but you just need "enough" who aren't and who are also greedy (i.e. the typical fraudster) to lose your shirt. It depends on the model though: If the author's model is such that his costs are bounded and are otherwise absorb-able, given the revenue driven by honest customers, then he may be OK.

But, our model is such that not busting the user can literally lead to unbounded losses and these guys show no compunction whatsoever about driving you into the dirt if they can make a buck.

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

#60

Post by stephp »

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??
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