5 ms·

100% this... there is a product definition and the free bring your own domain model is not part of the free product definition any more. I'm having trouble unde

100% this... there is a product definition and the free bring your own domain model is not part of the free product definition any more. I'm having trouble understanding how technically literate people are grumpy about this. It was only a matter of time. Google is a business, not your friend and you should treat interaction with them in this lens. It's not 2002 when Google was the cool hip thing to use and they seemed to demonstrate the do no evil mantra. It's a publicly trading business, one of the largest in world by revenue and market position and financial tactical decisions will trump your feelings for what you think they owe you.

johnebgd 5y ago
People got a decade or more of free email hosting from Google and now need to pay for it. I know one small business that sells physical products and got 200 free accounts through this program. To this day they never delete old employees accounts as a result because it had zero cost to them to keep it around (not that they cared about security). I kind of chuckled reading this thinking about how Google even bothered to spend resources closing this legacy service. I wondered what metric they used to determine it was worth spending effort to shut this down.
- notyourwork 5y ago
  I recall at one point they were offering large (unlimited) storage quotas for these business accounts. Some groups were using rclone to interface for Google Drive to store warez and other large ticket items like pirated audio/video. Even if the cap was 1TB I imagine there is a large amount of unused but occupied hot storage that is part of the equation. Not sure what others but in general there has to be some financial sheet indicating that this is costing money and offering no value so it is time to sunset it.
  - mnahkies 5y ago
    I wish mine had 1tb - I was already considering paying as I'm forever bumping up against a ~20gb limit with Google photos contributing most. To be fair I think that was per user on the domain, so probably could've created additional users to cycle through. Main thing that was holding me back was losing the grandfathered free plan should I change my mind / find an alternative for photos (I'd quite like to keep Google docs etc), but I guess that's no longer a consideration
GeekyBear 5y ago
> 100% this... there is a product definition and the free bring your own domain model is not part of the free product definition any more. I'm having trouble understanding how technically literate people are grumpy about this. People often react badly to bait and switch tactics. The solution is to offer people a way to revert to a free personal account without losing access to their files, data, and digital goods they have purchased.
- notyourwork 5y ago
  How is ten years of free a bait and switch? Free is free and when things are free the giver of free stuff owes you nothing beyond what was already given for free. It may suck but I don't think someone giving out free stuff owes me more?
  - CRConrad 5y ago
    > the giver of free stuff owes you nothing beyond what was already given for free. What they gave away for free included the promise "This will be free forever" (as linked in comments by others here). > I don't think someone giving out free stuff owes me more? But this isn't "more" then, is it? It's taking back what was already given.

johnebgd 5y ago

People got a decade or more of free email hosting from Google and now need to pay for it. I know one small business that sells physical products and got 200 free accounts through this program. To this day they never delete old employees accounts as a result because it had zero cost to them to keep it around (not that they cared about security). I kind of chuckled reading this thinking about how Google even bothered to spend resources closing this legacy service. I wondered what metric they used to determine it was worth spending effort to shut this down.

notyourwork 5y ago
I recall at one point they were offering large (unlimited) storage quotas for these business accounts. Some groups were using rclone to interface for Google Drive to store warez and other large ticket items like pirated audio/video. Even if the cap was 1TB I imagine there is a large amount of unused but occupied hot storage that is part of the equation. Not sure what others but in general there has to be some financial sheet indicating that this is costing money and offering no value so it is time to sunset it.
- mnahkies 5y ago
  I wish mine had 1tb - I was already considering paying as I'm forever bumping up against a ~20gb limit with Google photos contributing most. To be fair I think that was per user on the domain, so probably could've created additional users to cycle through. Main thing that was holding me back was losing the grandfathered free plan should I change my mind / find an alternative for photos (I'd quite like to keep Google docs etc), but I guess that's no longer a consideration

GeekyBear 5y ago

> 100% this... there is a product definition and the free bring your own domain model is not part of the free product definition any more. I'm having trouble understanding how technically literate people are grumpy about this. People often react badly to bait and switch tactics. The solution is to offer people a way to revert to a free personal account without losing access to their files, data, and digital goods they have purchased.

notyourwork 5y ago
How is ten years of free a bait and switch? Free is free and when things are free the giver of free stuff owes you nothing beyond what was already given for free. It may suck but I don't think someone giving out free stuff owes me more?
- CRConrad 5y ago
  > the giver of free stuff owes you nothing beyond what was already given for free. What they gave away for free included the promise "This will be free forever" (as linked in comments by others here). > I don't think someone giving out free stuff owes me more? But this isn't "more" then, is it? It's taking back what was already given.