3 ms·

> The solution is real simple Uhhmmm, I beg to differ and so do a lot of very smart people with many more servers and users than you or I are likely to see. A

> The solution is real simple Uhhmmm, I beg to differ and so do a lot of very smart people with many more servers and users than you or I are likely to see. As with most 'Oh, its' Simple - Just Do XYZ' solutions there are often very good reasons for not doing the 'Easy/Simple/One-Liner' and here are a few with yours - Firstly - The '10 bux' could exclude a vast swathe of the poorest. Skipping a couple of Starbuck coffees vs. the local currency equivalent of whatever you are charging equating to a month's worth of food or being able to send at least one of your children to the local village school. I mean - your forum / site so you can gate it anyway you wish, I'm just pointing out that it could and would be exclusionary (perhaps unintentionally so). Next Problem: Accepting and Processing the 'Good Behavior' deposit. Congratulations, you now need to become a Payment Processor and as such have certain legal requirements regarding payment details and storage and also tax returns. 'Oh, just Off-Load it to Stripe' someone might suggest. Do-able I guess but anyone who has taken payments over the internet will tell you that its a Royal Pain in The Ass. Also, now all a 'Griefer' needs to do is run a few dodgy cards through your registration system and 'Poof' there goes your payment processor and/or the fees go sky high. Most ‘oh its simple – why don’t they just…’ overlook (or are not aware) of the many, many good reasons why greater minds than yours or mine haven’t already implemented it. Sure – sometimes people do come up with novel solutions to old problems so theres no harm in spit-balling and I’m certainly not directing any scorn or ill-intent in my reply.

deleted 4y ago
[deleted]
gnome_chomsky 4y ago
> Most ‘oh its simple – why don’t they just…’ overlook (or are not aware) of the many, many good reasons why greater minds than yours or mine haven’t already implemented it. The forums they are referring to have been operating with the "10 bux" model implemented on top of a highly customized version of vBulletin for over 20 years.
Kalium 4y ago
> Firstly - The '10 bux' could exclude a vast swathe of the poorest. Skipping a couple of Starbuck coffees vs. the local currency equivalent of whatever you are charging equating to a month's worth of food or being able to send at least one of your children to the local village school. I mean - your forum / site so you can gate it anyway you wish, I'm just pointing out that it could and would be exclusionary (perhaps unintentionally so). It is intentionally exclusionary. Not necessarily of the poorest among us, but of those who expect free service. Botters and spammers are disproportionately likely to look for free service. Pretty much any level of required spending in any currency will have a similar effect. By cutting off the abuse-prone free tier that many bad actors depend on, you dramatically decrease your exposure to abuse. The point is not to keep out the poor people. The point is to make it far more work to get over the hurdle than it's worth for abusers. If you have a way to do the latter without the former that doesn't hinge on pushing a bunch of extra work onto administrators, I suspect quite a lot of people would be very curious to hear about it.
- strogonoff 4y ago
  Providing paid service doesn’t make one exclusionary of the poorest. You are free to give discounts or free service to vulnerable groups in exceptional circumstances, requesting a verification of your choice in place of a financial roadblock. While giving them status otherwise equivalent to that of regular paid accounts, you can still apply more sensitive monitoring procedures to them if you have grounds to expect false positives and abuse—good thing now you don’t have to do it with every account. What being a paid service does make you is a player in a game with certain agreed-upon rules, by which your incentives are aligned with those of your customers. Giving your paying users the right of the ultimate vote (with their wallets), you in a way paint yourself into a corner where you can either act in their best interests or go broke. It matters less if you are a huge corporation (many revenue streams), and it doesn’t guarantee you won’t cheat and violate the rules (take my money and sell my data, why not!), but still as a user I find it a useful signal.

deleted 4y ago

[deleted]

gnome_chomsky 4y ago

> Most ‘oh its simple – why don’t they just…’ overlook (or are not aware) of the many, many good reasons why greater minds than yours or mine haven’t already implemented it. The forums they are referring to have been operating with the "10 bux" model implemented on top of a highly customized version of vBulletin for over 20 years.

Kalium 4y ago

> Firstly - The '10 bux' could exclude a vast swathe of the poorest. Skipping a couple of Starbuck coffees vs. the local currency equivalent of whatever you are charging equating to a month's worth of food or being able to send at least one of your children to the local village school. I mean - your forum / site so you can gate it anyway you wish, I'm just pointing out that it could and would be exclusionary (perhaps unintentionally so). It is intentionally exclusionary. Not necessarily of the poorest among us, but of those who expect free service. Botters and spammers are disproportionately likely to look for free service. Pretty much any level of required spending in any currency will have a similar effect. By cutting off the abuse-prone free tier that many bad actors depend on, you dramatically decrease your exposure to abuse. The point is not to keep out the poor people. The point is to make it far more work to get over the hurdle than it's worth for abusers. If you have a way to do the latter without the former that doesn't hinge on pushing a bunch of extra work onto administrators, I suspect quite a lot of people would be very curious to hear about it.

strogonoff 4y ago
Providing paid service doesn’t make one exclusionary of the poorest. You are free to give discounts or free service to vulnerable groups in exceptional circumstances, requesting a verification of your choice in place of a financial roadblock. While giving them status otherwise equivalent to that of regular paid accounts, you can still apply more sensitive monitoring procedures to them if you have grounds to expect false positives and abuse—good thing now you don’t have to do it with every account. What being a paid service does make you is a player in a game with certain agreed-upon rules, by which your incentives are aligned with those of your customers. Giving your paying users the right of the ultimate vote (with their wallets), you in a way paint yourself into a corner where you can either act in their best interests or go broke. It matters less if you are a huge corporation (many revenue streams), and it doesn’t guarantee you won’t cheat and violate the rules (take my money and sell my data, why not!), but still as a user I find it a useful signal.