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Why does there need to be a business model? Can't people contribute to society for its own sake? Comments like this are implicitly hostile to that idea, and tha
by celdon25 3y ago
Why does there need to be a business model? Can't people contribute to society for its own sake? Comments like this are implicitly hostile to that idea, and that is "The Issue" with our society, generally speaking.
- lolinder 3y agoAside from server costs and dev costs (which do have to be paid by someone), a postcard-based authentication method means the platform would be spending about $0.48 per review. That has to be paid for somehow.
- moneywoes 3y agoHow is that figure calculated?
- photonbeam 3y agoProbably the cost of a postage stamp
- MattGaiser 3y agohttps://www.usps.com/business/prices.htm https://www.usps.com/business/prices.htm Not OP, but 0.48 is the price to mail a postcard.
- photonbeam 3y agoThats ok, the reviewer can pay. I’d happily pay 48c to warn people about a particular past landlord.
- DoctorOW 3y agoMake it an even $1 and that pays for probably all the costs of that program assuming they don't want to turn it into a big business. It probably won't need full time dev work.
- celdon25 3y agoThen put up a donation button. We're not talking about millions here
- pydry 3y agoIt's a legal target, it costs money to run and nobody very much wants to pay for the service. It would have to be run by a very dedicated volunteer with deep pockets.
- jdthedisciple 3y agoIt's not the issue with society that things cost money. Things just cost money: Be it electricity, housing, food, hosting, opportunity cost, whatever. If you want something to be sustainable there needs to be a plan for covering the costs involved. Life is not a fairy tale.
- celdon25 3y agoYou're not wrong (but I dispute the fairy tale characterization you attributed to my comment). Everyone's life priorities and capabilities are different. Occasionally over the years I have had enough disposable income and free time to work on a passion project. Since the latest inflation wave that has gone away sadly, but before that I was able to commit a few hundred a month. Eventually, one did get a large amount of traffic, and a handful of volunteers forming a team. While it wasn't something I could monetize, it did contribute to successful job interviews, and a temp gig working for someone who was a user of the project and gave me priority over other candidates due to seen first-hand that I was fixing things when they needed to be fixed. Keeping the costs low can be done, some are better than others at it. Low-cost IT infrastructure still exists, even in this economy. You should go into such a project expecting to not outgrow your cheap infrastructure unless you are in fact turning it into a business. Otherwise it is wasted effort (and money).
- jdthedisciple 3y agoI'm with you that it's possible for some, just like the money drain "Blue Origin" is possible for JB. But hardly everyone can afford to lose money like that. Besides, it's not really possible to keep the costs low if you take into account the opportunity costs involved. Therefore it's not rational to expect that from others however I agree that it would be nice if those who can would just do.