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I wanted to take a moment to point something out. I think most people here would agree that "unlimited free private repos" is not considered lying when in fact

I wanted to take a moment to point something out. I think most people here would agree that "unlimited free private repos" is not considered lying when in fact the free private repos are limited to 3 collaborators... correct? So why is it that when the subject turns to cell phone data, suddenly "unlimited data" is considered lying when the speed is then limited past a certain point? (Yes, I get that one service is paid and the other is free, and that you don't look a gift horse in the mouth, but those are beside my point.)

adrianmonk 8y ago
Another difference is that, with GitHub's announcement, there are multiple ways to interpret it because there are different things that the modifier "unlimited" could apply to. It could mean: 1. Unlimited number of repos, each of which is limited (by user, as it turns out). 2. Limited number of repos, each of which is unlimited. 3. Unlimited number of unlimited repos. When there are multiple ways to interpret and you find out someone has picked one of them, it doesn't feel like they are being disingenuous. Whereas with cell data plans, there's only one thing they could reasonably mean is unlimited: the data. So they've changed what "unlimited" means. It is limited, but there aren't overage charges.
- mehrdadn 8y ago
  In cell plans it's exactly the same thing though. The amount of data vs. the speed can each be artificially limited separately. They obviously mean the amount is unlimited whereas people somehow take it to mean both the amount and the speed are unlimited.
clhodapp 8y ago
I think that with GitHub the "unlimited" is understood to mean "in repo count". You can create as many repos as you want and still get the same quality of service. You are not punished for creating more repos, you just have some limitations on (all) the repos you can create. With cell phone data, "unlimited" is understood to mean "in quantity". However, once you reach a not-all-that-hard-to-hit threshold in that same metric, your quality of service degrades severely. I don't think anyone would have any issue if a carrier sold an "unlimited data" plan that provided that degraded quality of service from the start and didn't throttle based on actual usage. They would just factor the tradeoff into their purchasing decision and choose a plan appropriately. The problem is that the carriers advertise both the higher speed and the unlimited-ness when you can't actually have both at the same time.

adrianmonk 8y ago

Another difference is that, with GitHub's announcement, there are multiple ways to interpret it because there are different things that the modifier "unlimited" could apply to. It could mean: 1. Unlimited number of repos, each of which is limited (by user, as it turns out). 2. Limited number of repos, each of which is unlimited. 3. Unlimited number of unlimited repos. When there are multiple ways to interpret and you find out someone has picked one of them, it doesn't feel like they are being disingenuous. Whereas with cell data plans, there's only one thing they could reasonably mean is unlimited: the data. So they've changed what "unlimited" means. It is limited, but there aren't overage charges.

mehrdadn 8y ago
In cell plans it's exactly the same thing though. The amount of data vs. the speed can each be artificially limited separately. They obviously mean the amount is unlimited whereas people somehow take it to mean both the amount and the speed are unlimited.

clhodapp 8y ago

I think that with GitHub the "unlimited" is understood to mean "in repo count". You can create as many repos as you want and still get the same quality of service. You are not punished for creating more repos, you just have some limitations on (all) the repos you can create. With cell phone data, "unlimited" is understood to mean "in quantity". However, once you reach a not-all-that-hard-to-hit threshold in that same metric, your quality of service degrades severely. I don't think anyone would have any issue if a carrier sold an "unlimited data" plan that provided that degraded quality of service from the start and didn't throttle based on actual usage. They would just factor the tradeoff into their purchasing decision and choose a plan appropriately. The problem is that the carriers advertise both the higher speed and the unlimited-ness when you can't actually have both at the same time.