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It doesn't have to make it "not a free tool", but in my experience it often does. Why even bother with an account system? Nothing on the front page of this site

It doesn't have to make it "not a free tool", but in my experience it often does. Why even bother with an account system? Nothing on the front page of this site suggests an account is technically necessary. Yet the owner of the site is presumably paying for a DB to store all this information. Why? Usually there is one of two answers: A) They want to sell you shit, and they need some kind of identifier they can use to unlock content B) They want to collect info on you to sell to other people Either way, that's not free. If it's A, I am being asked to invest time in a tool without being told it's potential limitations (there's nothing on the front page mentioning limitations on unpaid accounts), and that's a cost. If it's B, I'm being data-mined, and companies only pay for data-mining if they think they can turn it into more profit, data-mining costs included. So if I'm being data-mined, it's because someone thinks they can use that data to get me to part with more money at some point down the line than I would choose to part with sans manipulation. That's a cost. Of course, there's always option C) The site creator hasn't thought about why they need an account system, and made one because that's what all the other cool websites do. Usually when C comes into play, you can expect account data leakages to follow due to piss poor security practices, and that's a cost.

hobbescotch 9y ago
Account system reduces the amount of people bypassing the 1 concurrent export per person limit (although I could do more on this front). I used this site so I can get a job coding since I'm an English Lit major who doesn't want to spend more money on school, which, thankfully, has recently paid off as I'm starting a new position next month. Also, $10 a month isn't a lot to pay for a fun project that will (maybe) help a bunch of people, but I can understand the suspicion.
- Sir_Substance 9y ago
  >Account system reduces the amount of people bypassing the 1 concurrent export per person limit (although I could do more on this front). It doesn't do that at all, see here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14640988 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14640988
sillysaurus3 9y ago
It's easier to throttle people if you have to use an account to access the information.
- Sir_Substance 9y ago
  > It's easier to throttle people if you have to use an account to access the information. That's not true in the slightest. I can create as many accounts as I can have email addresses, and I can have as many email addresses as I want. Robust throttling _requires_ an alternative throttling mechanism that works independent of account information, otherwise I can round-robin between accounts to bypass all throttling. If you're gonna have that anyway, we're back to "no technical need for accounts".
  - iEchoic 9y ago
    > Robust throttling _requires_ an alternative throttling mechanism that works independent of account information If they use Facebook login instead of email, how do you plan on getting thousands of Facebook accounts?
    - Sir_Substance 9y ago
      A) They didn't require facebook login B) It's been a while since I last checked, but I don't believe there's anything stopping me from just making shittonnes of facebook accounts C) Facebook accounts are about 90c each, if you're desperate: https://buyaccs.com/en/buy-bulk-facebook-accounts.php https://buyaccs.com/en/buy-bulk-facebook-accounts.php Accounts are not a throttling mechanism. In and of themselves, they cannot be.

hobbescotch 9y ago

Account system reduces the amount of people bypassing the 1 concurrent export per person limit (although I could do more on this front). I used this site so I can get a job coding since I'm an English Lit major who doesn't want to spend more money on school, which, thankfully, has recently paid off as I'm starting a new position next month. Also, $10 a month isn't a lot to pay for a fun project that will (maybe) help a bunch of people, but I can understand the suspicion.

Sir_Substance 9y ago
>Account system reduces the amount of people bypassing the 1 concurrent export per person limit (although I could do more on this front). It doesn't do that at all, see here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14640988 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14640988

sillysaurus3 9y ago

It's easier to throttle people if you have to use an account to access the information.

Sir_Substance 9y ago
> It's easier to throttle people if you have to use an account to access the information. That's not true in the slightest. I can create as many accounts as I can have email addresses, and I can have as many email addresses as I want. Robust throttling _requires_ an alternative throttling mechanism that works independent of account information, otherwise I can round-robin between accounts to bypass all throttling. If you're gonna have that anyway, we're back to "no technical need for accounts".
- iEchoic 9y ago
  > Robust throttling _requires_ an alternative throttling mechanism that works independent of account information If they use Facebook login instead of email, how do you plan on getting thousands of Facebook accounts?
  - Sir_Substance 9y ago
    A) They didn't require facebook login B) It's been a while since I last checked, but I don't believe there's anything stopping me from just making shittonnes of facebook accounts C) Facebook accounts are about 90c each, if you're desperate: https://buyaccs.com/en/buy-bulk-facebook-accounts.php https://buyaccs.com/en/buy-bulk-facebook-accounts.php Accounts are not a throttling mechanism. In and of themselves, they cannot be.