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If you marketed yourself as the Pizza place that gives slices away for free then people would expect that. If they showed up for their free slice and you said,

If you marketed yourself as the Pizza place that gives slices away for free then people would expect that. If they showed up for their free slice and you said, sorry, now they cost money, you can be sure they'd be angry. To extend your analogy, imagine they had taken a taxi to your pizza place to take advantage of your offer only to find they could no longer afford your pizza. Now they are forced to take another taxi to get to a different pizza place or go home and cook their own and they are mad as hell.

troyvit 4y ago
Yeah but what if the pizza place in question said in March, "While you can get a free slice of pizza now, in a few months[1] that won't be the case," and then provided a clear date for when that will happen? I'd say anybody who is still showing up expecting free pizza has made a mistake. [1] https://about.gitlab.com/blog/2022/03/24/efficient-free-tier/ https://about.gitlab.com/blog/2022/03/24/efficient-free-tier...
- wccrawford 4y ago
  If you give away pizza for free for 3 months, and then stop, even if you announced ahead of time that you'd do that, people will still be upset when they show up for their free pizza after that 3 months. If you give away free pizza for a week, it won't be a big deal. After a certain amount of time, people expect it and will be quite upset when it ends, no matter how you try to prepare them. Of course, others are more reasonable. But there are far too many who will simply expect it forever.
- seti0Cha 4y ago
  Your analogy doesn't work on that level. Going to get pizza is a decision which requires little planning and has no long term consequences, which is totally not the case with choosing a service provider like Gitlab. Metaphorically, customers who built their infrastructure on Gitlab while it was free are in the cab on their way for all those months of time because they have invested time and money in your offer and now have to invest more to replace it. Hence they are angry. There's nothing particularly entitled about that beyond the base entitlement that we all generally feel for the things we expect.
  - troyvit 4y ago
    That's the analogy of the person I responded to. I just extended it, but I think you're subverting it. Those customers who built their infra on GitLab while it was free aren't in the cab on their way, they've been to the joint over and over again. And again, they had at least a full quarter to find another free service to build their infrastructure on. I'm going to put this on its own line just to highlight it: [...] find another free service to build their infrastructure on. W-w-who actually thinks that's a good idea to begin with?

troyvit 4y ago

Yeah but what if the pizza place in question said in March, "While you can get a free slice of pizza now, in a few months[1] that won't be the case," and then provided a clear date for when that will happen? I'd say anybody who is still showing up expecting free pizza has made a mistake. [1] https://about.gitlab.com/blog/2022/03/24/efficient-free-tier/ https://about.gitlab.com/blog/2022/03/24/efficient-free-tier...

wccrawford 4y ago
If you give away pizza for free for 3 months, and then stop, even if you announced ahead of time that you'd do that, people will still be upset when they show up for their free pizza after that 3 months. If you give away free pizza for a week, it won't be a big deal. After a certain amount of time, people expect it and will be quite upset when it ends, no matter how you try to prepare them. Of course, others are more reasonable. But there are far too many who will simply expect it forever.
seti0Cha 4y ago
Your analogy doesn't work on that level. Going to get pizza is a decision which requires little planning and has no long term consequences, which is totally not the case with choosing a service provider like Gitlab. Metaphorically, customers who built their infrastructure on Gitlab while it was free are in the cab on their way for all those months of time because they have invested time and money in your offer and now have to invest more to replace it. Hence they are angry. There's nothing particularly entitled about that beyond the base entitlement that we all generally feel for the things we expect.
- troyvit 4y ago
  That's the analogy of the person I responded to. I just extended it, but I think you're subverting it. Those customers who built their infra on GitLab while it was free aren't in the cab on their way, they've been to the joint over and over again. And again, they had at least a full quarter to find another free service to build their infrastructure on. I'm going to put this on its own line just to highlight it: [...] find another free service to build their infrastructure on. W-w-who actually thinks that's a good idea to begin with?