A vending machine, on the internet
threekindwords.com
A vending machine, on the internet
1–10 of 92 posts
Re: A vending machine, on the internet
#2so this "vending machine" is a postcard drop shipping website?
Re: A vending machine, on the internet
#3so this "vending machine" is a postcard drop shipping website?
https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/vending%20machine
vending machine noun : a coin-operated machine for selling merchandise
Coin is currency. This website sells merchandise. If they wanna call it a vending machine, then why not?
Either way, silly hill to die on. The post does explore our understanding of a vending no machine and maybe how we may approach online versions.
Re: A vending machine, on the internet
#4so this "vending machine" is a postcard drop shipping website?
https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/vending%20machine vending machine noun : a coin-operated machine for selling merchandise Coin is currency. This website sells merchandise. If they wanna call it a vending machine, then why not? Either way, silly hill to die on. The post does explore our understanding of a vending no machine and maybe how we may approach online versions.
Perhaps I disagree on the following:
> There’s no customer support, chatbot, or extensive documentation.
I've seen many vending machines with customer support channels. If the machine takes the money but merchandise is not delivered, people will complain.
Re: A vending machine, on the internet
#5Rock on man. The contrarian attitude reminds me of the “I Sell Onions on the Internet” guy
https://www.deepsouthventures.com/i-sell-onions-on-the-inter...
Re: A vending machine, on the internet
#6Matt Webb's Machine Supply (2015-2018) comes to mind, albeit a bit higher brow. A vending machine selling books & notebooks, that also tweeted it's activity. https://www.actsnotfacts.com/made/machine-supply
Re: A vending machine, on the internet
#7Earlier quoted context omitted.
https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/vending%20machine vending machine noun : a coin-operated machine for selling merchandise Coin is currency. This website sells merchandise. If they wanna call it a vending machine, then why not? Either way, silly hill to die on. The post does explore our understanding of a vending no machine and maybe how we may approach online versions.
Perhaps I disagree on the following: > There’s no customer support, chatbot, or extensive documentation. I've seen many vending machines with customer support channels. If the machine takes the money but merchandise is not delivered, people will complain.
Exactly! A website that takes people's money and doesn't deliver a product or provide customer service is basically just committing fraud. Some vending machines do get away with fraud for a time. The place hosting someone else's machine (like a shop or a restaurant) will often get complaints from people who run into problems and those shops will often refund customers without notifying the vendor every time.
After enough complaints they might remove the machine from their property or compel the owner of the vending machine to maintain it, but the fact that some amount of fraud happens via vending machines isn't an ideal that we should try to replicate on the internet, especially not because it's easier for the people who make webpages.
"I didn't know I was ripping people off because I decided it would be easier if I never checked and also decided not to give any of the people I stole from a channel to tell me about it." won't hold up very well.
I also got some bad vibes from :
> The stakes should be low. Whatever you’re selling, it’s gotta be cheap. And if things go awry? No one’s going to launch a chargeback crusade
"I hoped that because I was taking such a small amount of money that nobody would bother to do anything about it" isn't a good look either.
The most pessimistic reading of this post is "why shouldn't I provide a service as shitty and fraudulent as lazy vending machine owners do only on a far more massive scale"
That said, I really do agree that people can over complicate things and there's a lot to be gained by not allowing account creation, not asking for more data than you absolutely need, and not keeping data around any longer than absolutely necessary. Just please don't think you can get away with not providing any customer service or not keeping an eye on things to make sure customers are getting what they pay for.
Re: A vending machine, on the internet
#8Earlier quoted context omitted.
Perhaps I disagree on the following: > There’s no customer support, chatbot, or extensive documentation. I've seen many vending machines with customer support channels. If the machine takes the money but merchandise is not delivered, people will complain.
Exactly! A website that takes people's money and doesn't deliver a product or provide customer service is basically just committing fraud. Some vending machines do get away with fraud for a time. The place hosting someone else's machine (like a shop or a restaurant) will often get complaints from people who run into problems and those shops will often refund customers without notifying the vendor every time. After en…
This is probably all just marketing/seo for the service used to send the post cards. I’ve never seen a vending machine that tells you the price they pay for the product by linking out to their providers. $0.82 per card and charging $5 for 3.
Re: A vending machine, on the internet
#9I'm reminded of Kagi's privacy pass model: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43040521
Generally speaking, kagi is not an internet vending machine. You have an account, you get billed monthly or whatever. Very much a normal SaaS in that regard. But the privacy system they've come up with fits quite well with the internet vending machine idea. You put a token in, you get a search result out.
I think it's got a lot of upside if you're trying to get paid to make software that isn't trying to manipulate its users. I hope to do something similar one day.
Re: A vending machine, on the internet
#10OP is in for a nasty surprise when they discover that the customers who complain the loudest are those that pay the least, and that it is difficult to turn a profit on a low-priced service due to the cost of acquiring customers.
Edit: And credit card fraud. A $5 price combined with a Stripe payment process is very attractive to people who want to test stolen credit card numbers.