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If a company is offering unlimited anything, then people will use that unlimited whatever. It's not them being abusive. Those people are using what they paid fo

If a company is offering unlimited anything, then people will use that unlimited whatever. It's not them being abusive. Those people are using what they paid for. Nothing more, nothing less.

vouaobrasil 3y ago
I disagree. Engineers will typically stick to the mathematical meaning of unlimited but I think there is *always* an unspoken social contract behind the word: be nice. For example, if I sign up for "unlimited cloud storage", I take it to mean, backing up all my personal stuff, no matter how large it grows. If I have the world's largest collection of digitized rocks in 8K Raw and it takes up 2 million terabytes...well I think I'm being disingenous by using the unlimited storage. Or for example, if a friend says "use my car any time you want"...will you really just steal his car and ship it to another country? I mean...nothing in this world is unlimited for real. And I think it makes sense to say unlimited to mean: you can use as much as you like, but be nice.
- alpark3 3y ago
  > I mean...nothing in this world is unlimited for real. Maybe don't call it unlimited storage then :D
  - vouaobrasil 3y ago
    Meh, I like the word. It means a typical person doesn't have to worry about going over the limit. For hacker-types, it often means "how can I use this up for myself..."
    - zamadatix 3y ago
      Just calling it the "15 TB plan" also means a typical person doesn't have to worry about going over the limit but lets the non-typical user know you don't consider 30 TB fair use before they bother signing up for your service and uploading all their data.
- eviks 3y ago
  There isn't such a contract because it's not specified, there are a huge number of "socially nice" use cases well below 2 million terabytes, so the proper way out is not to lie that it's unlimited (and give more guidance on what "fair use" is)
- jmpman 3y ago
  I agree. There are certain cultures which I expect to abuse “unlimited” anything.
JimtheCoder 3y ago
Do you feel the same way about all-you-can-eat buffets?
- supertrope 3y ago
  You cannot fill plates and then take them home. You cannot pass food out the window to your friends waiting outside. You can’t program a robot to collect food until you’ve harvested as much food as 500 median customers would eat.
  - JimtheCoder 3y ago
    "You cannot fill plates and then take them home." If you're a fast runner you can...

If a company is offering unlimited anything, then people will use that unlimited whatever. It's not them being abusive. Those people are using what they paid for. Nothing more, nothing less.

vouaobrasil 3y ago

I disagree. Engineers will typically stick to the mathematical meaning of unlimited but I think there is *always* an unspoken social contract behind the word: be nice. For example, if I sign up for "unlimited cloud storage", I take it to mean, backing up all my personal stuff, no matter how large it grows. If I have the world's largest collection of digitized rocks in 8K Raw and it takes up 2 million terabytes...well I think I'm being disingenous by using the unlimited storage. Or for example, if a friend says "use my car any time you want"...will you really just steal his car and ship it to another country? I mean...nothing in this world is unlimited for real. And I think it makes sense to say unlimited to mean: you can use as much as you like, but be nice.

alpark3 3y ago
> I mean...nothing in this world is unlimited for real. Maybe don't call it unlimited storage then :D
- vouaobrasil 3y ago
  Meh, I like the word. It means a typical person doesn't have to worry about going over the limit. For hacker-types, it often means "how can I use this up for myself..."
  - zamadatix 3y ago
    Just calling it the "15 TB plan" also means a typical person doesn't have to worry about going over the limit but lets the non-typical user know you don't consider 30 TB fair use before they bother signing up for your service and uploading all their data.
eviks 3y ago
There isn't such a contract because it's not specified, there are a huge number of "socially nice" use cases well below 2 million terabytes, so the proper way out is not to lie that it's unlimited (and give more guidance on what "fair use" is)
jmpman 3y ago
I agree. There are certain cultures which I expect to abuse “unlimited” anything.

JimtheCoder 3y ago

Do you feel the same way about all-you-can-eat buffets?

supertrope 3y ago
You cannot fill plates and then take them home. You cannot pass food out the window to your friends waiting outside. You can’t program a robot to collect food until you’ve harvested as much food as 500 median customers would eat.
- JimtheCoder 3y ago
  "You cannot fill plates and then take them home." If you're a fast runner you can...