4 ms·

How many ISPs do you have to choose from? Personally, I have two: Comcast and AT&T. Comcast has been a nightmare recently, with almost weekly outages and freque

How many ISPs do you have to choose from? Personally, I have two: Comcast and AT&T. Comcast has been a nightmare recently, with almost weekly outages and frequent periods of severely degraded bandwidth. AT&T (even their supposed "Fiber" offering) requires a working copper twisted-pair RJ11 outlet where the gateway is to be installed, which I don't have and which would require an electrician and multiple holes in my walls to supply. So I'm on Comcast. Reluctantly. Now what if Comcast decided to charge more for access to HN? Where's your free market god now?

feld 9y ago
You are choosing to not use AT&T over holes in the walls of your dwelling required for installation. The free market is working as intended in this case. Most people really don't have a choice. You're just being a prick.
- sctb 9y ago
  You can always safely leave out the personal jeers, like the guidelines ask. https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html
  - feld 9y ago
    It wasn't a personal jeer. I was commenting on his behavior/attitude, not calling him names. There's a big difference. alternately: > You're just being (a prick | stubborn | bullheaded | rigid | perverse | unreasonable)
    - sctb 9y ago
      If there's a difference, it's one that doesn't bring the comment within the guidelines. They don't just ask us not to call people names, they ask us not to call names at all: > When disagreeing, please reply to the argument instead of calling names. E.g. "That is idiotic; 1 + 1 is 2, not 3" can be shortened to "1 + 1 is 2, not 3." https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html
      - feld 9y ago
        Alright let me replay this conversation: Post: > the free market is broken. I have a choice between two providers but one is a slight inconvenience for me to have installed so I refuse to use it. YC Approved© Reply: > the free market is not broken. 🆒
        dang 9y ago
        This evades the point. The point is that you can't post things like "You're just being a prick" to Hacker News. We ban accounts that do this, so please don't do it again.
        feld 9y ago
        I did not evade the point. You are choosing to to ignore it. This comment is well within HN guidelines.
TallGuyShort 9y ago
>> Where's your free market god now? Most places I've lived, the primary issue has been whether or not local government will allow additional networks. Mine is very set on "You can have Comcast or CenturyLink at DSL speeds". So I get DMV-like service anyway.
weberc2 9y ago
> Now what if Comcast decided to charge more for access to HN? Evidently there would be less trolling. Anyway, you're making the "free market" point--local governments are restricting the market, leaving you with fewer choices.
crazy1van 9y ago
> Now what if Comcast decided to charge more for access to HN? Then, you might want get that RJ11 outlet installed. Easy fix.

feld 9y ago

You are choosing to not use AT&T over holes in the walls of your dwelling required for installation. The free market is working as intended in this case. Most people really don't have a choice. You're just being a prick.

sctb 9y ago
You can always safely leave out the personal jeers, like the guidelines ask. https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html
- feld 9y ago
  It wasn't a personal jeer. I was commenting on his behavior/attitude, not calling him names. There's a big difference. alternately: > You're just being (a prick | stubborn | bullheaded | rigid | perverse | unreasonable)
  - sctb 9y ago
    If there's a difference, it's one that doesn't bring the comment within the guidelines. They don't just ask us not to call people names, they ask us not to call names at all: > When disagreeing, please reply to the argument instead of calling names. E.g. "That is idiotic; 1 + 1 is 2, not 3" can be shortened to "1 + 1 is 2, not 3." https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html
    - feld 9y ago
      Alright let me replay this conversation: Post: > the free market is broken. I have a choice between two providers but one is a slight inconvenience for me to have installed so I refuse to use it. YC Approved© Reply: > the free market is not broken. 🆒
      - dang 9y ago
        This evades the point. The point is that you can't post things like "You're just being a prick" to Hacker News. We ban accounts that do this, so please don't do it again.
        feld 9y ago
        I did not evade the point. You are choosing to to ignore it. This comment is well within HN guidelines.

TallGuyShort 9y ago

>> Where's your free market god now? Most places I've lived, the primary issue has been whether or not local government will allow additional networks. Mine is very set on "You can have Comcast or CenturyLink at DSL speeds". So I get DMV-like service anyway.

weberc2 9y ago

> Now what if Comcast decided to charge more for access to HN? Evidently there would be less trolling. Anyway, you're making the "free market" point--local governments are restricting the market, leaving you with fewer choices.

crazy1van 9y ago

> Now what if Comcast decided to charge more for access to HN? Then, you might want get that RJ11 outlet installed. Easy fix.