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> *Note: Promotion code available for new DigitalOcean customers only. This type of promotion really aggravates me. I'm not just saying this only about the ann

> *Note: Promotion code available for new DigitalOcean customers only. This type of promotion really aggravates me. I'm not just saying this only about the announced GitLab/DigitialOcean partnership, but rather as a general comment as I see this customer acquisition ruse quite a lot elsewhere too. I spend money with DigitalOcean. I don't feel particularly rewarded for my loyalty when I can't enjoy the same promotion as some new customer, who may never spend another cent with DO.

jobvandervoort 11y ago
I can understand that you feel this is unfair. Here's our point of view: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11529780 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11529780
- deleted 11y ago
  [deleted]
- pc86 11y ago
  Sorry that's a cop out. The complaint is that promo codes for a brand new, very useful integration are limited to people who statistically are less likely to use them (new users on a new platform). "We hope you continue to enjoy paying for great boot times and UX" is... not a reply worth typing, honestly. I'm a small DigitalOcean customer. If you want the promo to be cost effective, limit it to the first 250 users or whatever. I don't think anybody here would give you a hard time about protecting the financial integrity of a program. But don't hide behind that if it's really just a way to get a few new users in the door (which is fine!) - just be honest about it.
  - fweespee_ch 11y ago
    I strongly suspect that promotion has terms controlled by DigitalOcean and not GitLab. You'd probably get more mileage at complaining to DO than you would to GitLab. --- EDIT: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11529949 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11529949 > @fweespee_ch: if they're not reading HN, they're doing it wrong anyway. Fair enough. I just think trying to force a response out of GitLab employees is the wrong route to take when they have no power over the coupon.
    - sytse 11y ago
      The terms if the coupons are set by DigitalOcean and not GitLab. But as GitLab CEO I understand that they have these terms in order to make it cost effective for them. We'll certainly mention the feedback that existing customers would also like to enjoy the same coupons.
  - d33 11y ago
    @fweespee_ch: if they're not reading HN, they're doing it wrong anyway.
  - deleted 11y ago
    [deleted]
- funkyy 11y ago
  This does not sound like point of view, just a generic, corporate style message that does not address the issue in any way. Rewarding only new customers is mobile phone operators style bite that decreases value of the brand and product. In this situation hosting company knows its not easy to move the servers to different host (at most cases) and uses that as an advantage to milk the customers more. If they ever would actually release promo on their anniversary or something and give $5 to all registered members, they would get more good press than they could have ever dream of.
  - sytse 11y ago
    Sorry if I sounder a bit generic. I'm GitLab's CEO so I can't comment in the name of DigitalOcean. Also see https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11529957 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11529957
    - funkyy 11y ago
      Ah no problem, just pointing out its not really explanation or anything that could bring more in to this issue. Thanks for being responsive though.
      - sytse 11y ago
        Thanks for understanding.
NicoJuicy 11y ago
Yeah, I know what you mean. Existing customers are left in the dark, which is definitely not a great feeling as a paying user of DO. My company paid for their instance of gitlab, I'm not a paying user though ( yet - too small), so this hasn't got anything to do with gitlab ( referencing the answer of gitlab themselves :) )
- tenken 11y ago
  > Yeah, I know what you mean. Existing customers are left in the dark, which is definitely not a great feeling as a paying user of DO. You get the (new) additional services being provided in part by DO. You're literally NOT in the dark. As an analogy my parents have a house alarm system. It was installed 5+ years ago and they pay a monthly fee. You can bet that the newer television ads for this nationwide company (cough ADT *cough) show WiFi enabled controls and whizbang stuff on the master panel -- their alarm master panel is the same panel for the last 5+ years and has never been touched by a technician. I can give the same example for my Comcast cable box. It's the box I got when i got the initial subscription. Typically promo codes are for new customers, OR new promotional offers wherein you'll migrate your whole account to a new tier of service. They aren't going to hand you $10 to simply continue to use their (updated) service for them. While you benefit from the new services anyways.
oridecon 11y ago
and make sure you use the credits as soon as possible http://pastebin.com/enmCYWbH http://pastebin.com/enmCYWbH
BoppreH 11y ago
Two years ago the GitHub Student Developer Pack gave me $100, which I have been using to maintain a tiny droplet (literally changed my life, thank you). Last month Digital Ocean sent me this message: We’re truly sorry if this came as a surprise. As of March 2015, we revised our Terms of Service announcing that we’re no longer able to offer credits that do not expire, and any unused credit added to your account more than 12 months ago will expire. I still have over $80 of credit left, expiring this month. I understand why they are doing this, but it left a bad taste because of the small values involved, retroactive action and lack of communication (I didn't get this March 2015 email or any reminders since). This also creates a perverse incentive to burn the credits in a blaze of glory. I'm restraining myself, but I can only image the headache this will create across all users.
- joeyrobert 11y ago
  Do it, they're incentivizing you to bring up 8 VMs or 1 really big VM.
  - kevincox 11y ago
    Yeah, but I don't have the use for 8VMs. Give me notice and I will try to use it up. But don't give me a month, I can't effectively use that in time. I can waste it, sure. But that's not the point of the credit in the first place.
- onli 11y ago
  > I didn't get this March 2015 email or any reminders since I checked my emails as well when I got that. There was no notification in March or since of that change.
- detaro 11y ago
  If people are looking for a way to use up credit and want to support something useful, run an Archiveteam Warrior. Helps to archive (soon-to-be) dead websites and and isn't too resource-intensive on the provider. http://archiveteam.org/index.php?title=Warrior http://archiveteam.org/index.php?title=Warrior
andrewsomething 11y ago
Hi! If you have never applied a promo code to your DigitalOcean account in the past, this code will still work for you. It's really just meant to give new users a chance to try out DO, and we've provided similar opportunities many times in the past. Just to be clear, we are powering free CI runners for all GitLab.com users. In all honesty, the promo code was a bit of an afterthought.
- ben_jones 11y ago
  Hi! I think when people use openings like that in comments, emails, etc., it comes off as pretentious because you are in fact not excited to talk to me and are doing so out of pure necessity.
- ItsJason 11y ago
  This is an awesome thing to do, and I think if people knew that was the case they wouldn't be upset by not being able to use another promo. I started using DO with a $10 credit years ago, and still love the service. Thanks guys!
- j_mcnally 11y ago
  The solution to me is to not provide free credit, but to credit the creation of a new droplet for existing users. Many will scale up and not scale back down. If im on the edge if i need to throw another droplet behind the loadbalancer and your like DO IT, you've been a great customer so we'll give you a month free for the new capacity, am i going to risk removing it.... not if my product is doing well. its a WIN WIN. an offer like this would be awesome to roll out to loyal customers with semi-produciton work loads (2-4) medium+ droplets already. It solves the problem of incentivizing loyal exisiting customers, along with driving business needs of not burning money without a return. Also HMU if your looking for a SVP of Product or something like that, I clearly have some good ideas for you.
stanmancan 11y ago
"$10 credit on sign up" vs "$10 credit for all existing customers" is a significantly different story in terms of the cost to the business. This is offered as an incentive to start using the service, not to keep using it.
mc32 11y ago
I think while understandable, it's a bit irrelevant. DO is either worth it at the price you pay, or not worth it. It's like when I buy something at the checkout and then the next week it's on sale at a discount. Either that item was worth it to me at the mark up (in which case I bought it) or it wasn't (in which case I would have passed). I think that's the same here. Sure, I'll feel "hey, I could have saved "X" and true, I could have, but I obviously found value at the price it was being offered.

jobvandervoort 11y ago

I can understand that you feel this is unfair. Here's our point of view: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11529780 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11529780

deleted 11y ago
[deleted]
pc86 11y ago
Sorry that's a cop out. The complaint is that promo codes for a brand new, very useful integration are limited to people who statistically are less likely to use them (new users on a new platform). "We hope you continue to enjoy paying for great boot times and UX" is... not a reply worth typing, honestly. I'm a small DigitalOcean customer. If you want the promo to be cost effective, limit it to the first 250 users or whatever. I don't think anybody here would give you a hard time about protecting the financial integrity of a program. But don't hide behind that if it's really just a way to get a few new users in the door (which is fine!) - just be honest about it.
- fweespee_ch 11y ago
  I strongly suspect that promotion has terms controlled by DigitalOcean and not GitLab. You'd probably get more mileage at complaining to DO than you would to GitLab. --- EDIT: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11529949 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11529949 > @fweespee_ch: if they're not reading HN, they're doing it wrong anyway. Fair enough. I just think trying to force a response out of GitLab employees is the wrong route to take when they have no power over the coupon.
  - sytse 11y ago
    The terms if the coupons are set by DigitalOcean and not GitLab. But as GitLab CEO I understand that they have these terms in order to make it cost effective for them. We'll certainly mention the feedback that existing customers would also like to enjoy the same coupons.
- d33 11y ago
  @fweespee_ch: if they're not reading HN, they're doing it wrong anyway.
- deleted 11y ago
  [deleted]
funkyy 11y ago
This does not sound like point of view, just a generic, corporate style message that does not address the issue in any way. Rewarding only new customers is mobile phone operators style bite that decreases value of the brand and product. In this situation hosting company knows its not easy to move the servers to different host (at most cases) and uses that as an advantage to milk the customers more. If they ever would actually release promo on their anniversary or something and give $5 to all registered members, they would get more good press than they could have ever dream of.
- sytse 11y ago
  Sorry if I sounder a bit generic. I'm GitLab's CEO so I can't comment in the name of DigitalOcean. Also see https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11529957 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11529957
  - funkyy 11y ago
    Ah no problem, just pointing out its not really explanation or anything that could bring more in to this issue. Thanks for being responsive though.
    - sytse 11y ago
      Thanks for understanding.

NicoJuicy 11y ago

Yeah, I know what you mean. Existing customers are left in the dark, which is definitely not a great feeling as a paying user of DO. My company paid for their instance of gitlab, I'm not a paying user though ( yet - too small), so this hasn't got anything to do with gitlab ( referencing the answer of gitlab themselves :) )

tenken 11y ago
> Yeah, I know what you mean. Existing customers are left in the dark, which is definitely not a great feeling as a paying user of DO. You get the (new) additional services being provided in part by DO. You're literally NOT in the dark. As an analogy my parents have a house alarm system. It was installed 5+ years ago and they pay a monthly fee. You can bet that the newer television ads for this nationwide company (cough ADT *cough) show WiFi enabled controls and whizbang stuff on the master panel -- their alarm master panel is the same panel for the last 5+ years and has never been touched by a technician. I can give the same example for my Comcast cable box. It's the box I got when i got the initial subscription. Typically promo codes are for new customers, OR new promotional offers wherein you'll migrate your whole account to a new tier of service. They aren't going to hand you $10 to simply continue to use their (updated) service for them. While you benefit from the new services anyways.

oridecon 11y ago

and make sure you use the credits as soon as possible http://pastebin.com/enmCYWbH http://pastebin.com/enmCYWbH

BoppreH 11y ago

Two years ago the GitHub Student Developer Pack gave me $100, which I have been using to maintain a tiny droplet (literally changed my life, thank you). Last month Digital Ocean sent me this message: We’re truly sorry if this came as a surprise. As of March 2015, we revised our Terms of Service announcing that we’re no longer able to offer credits that do not expire, and any unused credit added to your account more than 12 months ago will expire. I still have over $80 of credit left, expiring this month. I understand why they are doing this, but it left a bad taste because of the small values involved, retroactive action and lack of communication (I didn't get this March 2015 email or any reminders since). This also creates a perverse incentive to burn the credits in a blaze of glory. I'm restraining myself, but I can only image the headache this will create across all users.

joeyrobert 11y ago
Do it, they're incentivizing you to bring up 8 VMs or 1 really big VM.
- kevincox 11y ago
  Yeah, but I don't have the use for 8VMs. Give me notice and I will try to use it up. But don't give me a month, I can't effectively use that in time. I can waste it, sure. But that's not the point of the credit in the first place.
onli 11y ago
> I didn't get this March 2015 email or any reminders since I checked my emails as well when I got that. There was no notification in March or since of that change.
detaro 11y ago
If people are looking for a way to use up credit and want to support something useful, run an Archiveteam Warrior. Helps to archive (soon-to-be) dead websites and and isn't too resource-intensive on the provider. http://archiveteam.org/index.php?title=Warrior http://archiveteam.org/index.php?title=Warrior

andrewsomething 11y ago

Hi! If you have never applied a promo code to your DigitalOcean account in the past, this code will still work for you. It's really just meant to give new users a chance to try out DO, and we've provided similar opportunities many times in the past. Just to be clear, we are powering free CI runners for all GitLab.com users. In all honesty, the promo code was a bit of an afterthought.

ben_jones 11y ago
Hi! I think when people use openings like that in comments, emails, etc., it comes off as pretentious because you are in fact not excited to talk to me and are doing so out of pure necessity.
ItsJason 11y ago
This is an awesome thing to do, and I think if people knew that was the case they wouldn't be upset by not being able to use another promo. I started using DO with a $10 credit years ago, and still love the service. Thanks guys!
j_mcnally 11y ago
The solution to me is to not provide free credit, but to credit the creation of a new droplet for existing users. Many will scale up and not scale back down. If im on the edge if i need to throw another droplet behind the loadbalancer and your like DO IT, you've been a great customer so we'll give you a month free for the new capacity, am i going to risk removing it.... not if my product is doing well. its a WIN WIN. an offer like this would be awesome to roll out to loyal customers with semi-produciton work loads (2-4) medium+ droplets already. It solves the problem of incentivizing loyal exisiting customers, along with driving business needs of not burning money without a return. Also HMU if your looking for a SVP of Product or something like that, I clearly have some good ideas for you.

stanmancan 11y ago

"$10 credit on sign up" vs "$10 credit for all existing customers" is a significantly different story in terms of the cost to the business. This is offered as an incentive to start using the service, not to keep using it.

mc32 11y ago

I think while understandable, it's a bit irrelevant. DO is either worth it at the price you pay, or not worth it. It's like when I buy something at the checkout and then the next week it's on sale at a discount. Either that item was worth it to me at the mark up (in which case I bought it) or it wasn't (in which case I would have passed). I think that's the same here. Sure, I'll feel "hey, I could have saved "X" and true, I could have, but I obviously found value at the price it was being offered.