15 ms·

Everything free, becomes ad-infested. Nothing is free, and it's really annoying seeing company after company make empty promises about privacy and "being differ

by rabuse 4y ago

Everything free, becomes ad-infested. Nothing is free, and it's really annoying seeing company after company make empty promises about privacy and "being different", then switching up when their investors start breathing down their necks. Just be honest from the start.

p0pcult 4y ago
At this point, it's not just free things that are becoming infested.
- sph 4y ago
  Yeah, they're so ubiquitous people have gotten used to them. Companies have learned that if you put ads in paid products, people grumble and moan but still keep paying for your product. The future is ads everywhere, paid or free, doesn't matter. More revenue out of every user with little effort, shareholders love this stuff.
  - vorticalbox 4y ago
    I recently installed windows 10 on my Linux box and the amount of ads in the start menu was shocking. Though I guess it's no different than dvds having ads after you paid for them.
- princevegeta89 4y ago
  Agreed. Outside software, there's a growing plague as well. - Buying an $1200+ iPhone that doesn't come with an adapter. - BMW charging you $10+ bucks per month to turn on seat heaters that came with your already expensive car - Mercedes 0-60mph acceleration booster "unlock fee" for $1200/year - Tesla woes with frequent "upgrades" locked behind paywalls. - The ironic micro-transactions in Mobile games. When summed up, they are only "macro" with millions of bucks coming in every day. This has infested gaming outside Mobile as well. I'm not ever gonna touch console gaming again.
shishy 4y ago
I dunno if it's fair to say "just be honest from the start" -- they might have genuinely believed it but had to face the reality because they set themselves up poorly with how they raised / their finances / etc.
siverson914 4y ago
Craigslist has done a pretty good job resisting this.
- btbuildem 4y ago
  Craigslist isn't free -- there are certain categories (like job postings in some areas) that are paid. This subsidizes the entire service. Craigslist has indeed done very, very well. They've maintained a useful service, ad-free, for decades. Made a ton of money doing it, too.
  - titzer 4y ago
    Their secret is they did not try to grow at an insane rate. They have 50 employees and over $650 million in revenue. The revenue per employee is over $13 million. The reason the giants are giant is because they are driven to become giant by people and investors who want to become billionaires.
    - cpeterso 4y ago
      Could Craigslist have been as successful if it launched today, instead of 1996?
- 0xRepublic 4y ago
  The lack of bs website overhead on craigslist is honestly impressive. RAW HTML BABY!

by rabuse 4y ago

p0pcult 4y ago

At this point, it's not just free things that are becoming infested.

sph 4y ago
Yeah, they're so ubiquitous people have gotten used to them. Companies have learned that if you put ads in paid products, people grumble and moan but still keep paying for your product. The future is ads everywhere, paid or free, doesn't matter. More revenue out of every user with little effort, shareholders love this stuff.
- vorticalbox 4y ago
  I recently installed windows 10 on my Linux box and the amount of ads in the start menu was shocking. Though I guess it's no different than dvds having ads after you paid for them.
princevegeta89 4y ago
Agreed. Outside software, there's a growing plague as well. - Buying an $1200+ iPhone that doesn't come with an adapter. - BMW charging you $10+ bucks per month to turn on seat heaters that came with your already expensive car - Mercedes 0-60mph acceleration booster "unlock fee" for $1200/year - Tesla woes with frequent "upgrades" locked behind paywalls. - The ironic micro-transactions in Mobile games. When summed up, they are only "macro" with millions of bucks coming in every day. This has infested gaming outside Mobile as well. I'm not ever gonna touch console gaming again.

shishy 4y ago

I dunno if it's fair to say "just be honest from the start" -- they might have genuinely believed it but had to face the reality because they set themselves up poorly with how they raised / their finances / etc.

siverson914 4y ago

Craigslist has done a pretty good job resisting this.

btbuildem 4y ago
Craigslist isn't free -- there are certain categories (like job postings in some areas) that are paid. This subsidizes the entire service. Craigslist has indeed done very, very well. They've maintained a useful service, ad-free, for decades. Made a ton of money doing it, too.
- titzer 4y ago
  Their secret is they did not try to grow at an insane rate. They have 50 employees and over $650 million in revenue. The revenue per employee is over $13 million. The reason the giants are giant is because they are driven to become giant by people and investors who want to become billionaires.
  - cpeterso 4y ago
    Could Craigslist have been as successful if it launched today, instead of 1996?
0xRepublic 4y ago
The lack of bs website overhead on craigslist is honestly impressive. RAW HTML BABY!