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Before buying a NYT subscription, here's what it'll take to cancel it

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Re: Before buying a NYT subscription, here's what it'll take to cancel it

#771

Post by shyn3 »

city41 wrote: post #65
shyn3 wrote: post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

When most people see "cancel membership" they will think it is immediately. They will just wait to cancel until the last possible day and when they forget it's free money for Netflix. It's smart/shady. I'm sure it contributes to their decreasing churn.

Full disclosure, I used to work for Netflix. I really don't think they're trying to be shady. When you click to cancel, it tells you what your last day of service will be. This is also how just about all monthly subscription services work. One of the most important metrics at Netflix is how many hours members are watching. Any A/B test that can improve that metric is really cherished, because Netflix wants happy cust…

Okay makes sense then. I just don't see any of the elder people who I have setup Netflix risk pressing the cancel button because they can't get it set up. However, they do try to remove their credit card number and it doesn't let you. Which is actually another annoyance, why can't I delete my credit card from your site. It's still a dark pattern or just bad data security.

Re: Before buying a NYT subscription, here's what it'll take to cancel it

#773

Post by city41 »

shyn3 wrote: post #771
city41 wrote: post #65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Full disclosure, I used to work for Netflix. I really don't think they're trying to be shady. When you click to cancel, it tells you what your last day of service will be. This is also how just about all monthly subscription services work. One of the most important metrics at Netflix is how many hours members are watching. Any A/B test that can improve that metric is really cherished, because Netflix wants happy cust…

Okay makes sense then. I just don't see any of the elder people who I have setup Netflix risk pressing the cancel button because they can't get it set up. However, they do try to remove their credit card number and it doesn't let you. Which is actually another annoyance, why can't I delete my credit card from your site. It's still a dark pattern or just bad data security.

That's a good point about older customers. I could see them being confused. I'm not really sure to be honest though, as I didn't work on this stuff when I was there. I'm not sure about the credit card issue either.

Re: Before buying a NYT subscription, here's what it'll take to cancel it

#774

Post by tssva »

It isn't even just for profit companies which have this dark pattern. My local PBS station, WETA, allows you to start monthly donations, increase the amount of your monthly donation and update your form of payment online, but to reduce your donation or stop your donation you must call them.

Re: Before buying a NYT subscription, here's what it'll take to cancel it

#776

Post by WalterGR »

jacob2484 wrote: post #639
polote wrote: post #522

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The pandemic made me realize how much newspapers have impact on people opinions. If they keep telling a vaccine in unsafe, a big part of their readers will believe the vaccine is unsafe. If they keep telling a vaccine is safe a big part of their readers will believe the vaccine is safe. And that no matter what the reality is. I'm not american but reading NYT during the elections, I was astonished by how much NYT was…

100% true. And let's recall the Time article how the media in US conspired against Trump: https://www.worldtribune.com/time-magazine-all-but-confirms-...

It’s sad to see so many newly-created accounts that only argue about politics, from a particular point of view to counter what they see as HN’s incorrect groupthink. “There’s this forum, guys, where people don’t think the right way. Let’s brigade. Go there, create an account, and comment.”

I wonder who it is referring people to HN for this purpose.

Re: Before buying a NYT subscription, here's what it'll take to cancel it

#777

Post by hkt »

jsmith99 wrote: post #445
hkt wrote: post #400

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've no experience with the bank named and assume it is in the US, but for what it is worth, in the UK people hardly ever pay for bank accounts. It does appear to be viable, although I'm not sure how it works.

It's subsidised by eye watering fees on unarranged overdrafts. When the FCA and CMA looked into it several years ago, the banks claimed they couldn't reduce overdraft fees or they wouldn't be able to afford to offer free bank accounts any more. Some challenger banks wanted it to be forbidden to describe such accounts as 'free'. https://www.google.com/amp/s/amp.theguardian.com/business/20...

Fascinating link, thank you!

Re: Before buying a NYT subscription, here's what it'll take to cancel it

#778

Post by chmod600 »

jancsika wrote: post #694
chmod600 wrote: post #278

I just cancelled and it was relatively painless, to their credit. When they asked the reason, I said that political coverage was unfair. Left is OK, unfair is not. I don't consider myself "on the left" but I really don't mind a publication being left of center or right of center. If it's good, I will pay for it (I subscribed tp The Atlantic at least twice, and the New Yorker once, and probably others in a mix of prin…

> But the NYT has drifted too far down the path of politically-correct fashions, and away from robust debate and discussion of challenging topics and how they intersect with real events. > I should reiterate that this is not a right-left thing. This very likely is a right-left thing: * The NYT systematically avoided the term "torture" in everything except op-eds when describing the Bush admin's post-911 torture progr…

You misunderstood my point. Bias exists and I have accepted that, and I won't unsubscribe from good reporting because of bias.

Giving into left-leaning fashions is bad not because of the "left-leaning" part; its bad because of the "fashions" part. It's lazy groupthink at best, and bullying people into conformity at worst.

Have you noticed how narrow and specific all of the rules for reporting have become? Do you honestly believe that leftism is defined by these narrow rules, many of which are changing rapidly?

No. Most left-leaning people don't believe this stuff (how could a normal person even change their beliefs from one day to the next?). They go along with it because either they are too scared of getting bullied themselves; or because it's mostly hurting the right, and they believe they can regain control of the discourse after the right is diminished.

But it's easy to destroy good discourse and hard to rebuild it. After the right gets marginalized, we won't go to open-minded chats over coffee among left-leaning folks. It will be these same horrible tactics over the most minor differences of opinion on the left. Proponents of socialized medicine will be doxxing proponents of Medicare for all. There will be no end to the ridiculousness.

Re: Before buying a NYT subscription, here's what it'll take to cancel it

#779

Post by colinmhayes »

polote wrote: post #769
alpaca128 wrote: post #757

Earlier quoted context omitted.

When you have to argue that you're "pretty sure" not everything about a person is bad then negative press coverage is not surprising. I am currently struggling to come up with something about Trump that's not mostly negative. Maybe his honesty in the Woodward calls? That's stretching it a bit, and only highlights how dishonest he's been in public. His response to Covid and natural disasters? So bad it better be incom…

For example, don't you think Trump acted well regarding getting vaccine quickly ?

Do you honestly think Trump had anything to do with vaccine development? I don't think he hindered it, but I don't think he accelerated it either.

Re: Before buying a NYT subscription, here's what it'll take to cancel it

#780

Post by chmod600 »

tallanvor wrote: post #438
chmod600 wrote: post #278

I just cancelled and it was relatively painless, to their credit. When they asked the reason, I said that political coverage was unfair. Left is OK, unfair is not. I don't consider myself "on the left" but I really don't mind a publication being left of center or right of center. If it's good, I will pay for it (I subscribed tp The Atlantic at least twice, and the New Yorker once, and probably others in a mix of prin…

NYT is quite right of center on many issues. They're not as conservative as WSJ, but they're definitely not a leftist publication.

I said twice that it's not about left-right. Please don't try to make my comment about that.

The problem is they are treating politics like fashion, where it's super specific and constantly changing. And they are bullying (or cheering it on, at least) anyone who doesn't conform.

Whether these specific fashions they promote are "left" or "right" or "center" was immaterial to my decision to cancel.

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