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They stopped charging almost immediately, as soon as the iMessage functionality was broken, and never started again. This is a strawman.

by borski 3y ago

llm_nerd 3y ago
They literally released this as a commercial service for $2/month. That they removed fees temporarily while it was completely broken does not make my statement of absolute, verifiable, incontestable fact a "strawman". History isn't rewritten because they lost.
- borski 3y ago
  Fair enough. I don’t disagree they saw it as a way to make some money. I took your comment to imply that as a result of charging, their goal in fighting Apple was to “get back to charging $2/mo” which is a pretty surface-level statement. Their goal is to get iMessage on Android phones. I honestly doubt they’d care if they were the ones who eventually did it, as the main thing they eventually plan on making money off of is Beeper, not Beeper Mini.
  - dylan604 3y ago
    If this was any where near the truth, they would not have started charging at all. It would have been released as a free app to gain traction, and then start charging money for it. They fact that they started charging on such a slippery app shows it was a cash grab
  - JoshuaRogers 3y ago
    Based on my reading of their post where they announced it was free… > We’ve made Beeper free to use. Things have been a bit chaotic, and we’re not comfortable subjecting paying users to this. As soon as things stabilize (we hope they will), we’ll look at turning on subscriptions again. … and based on my reading of their jobs page … > *How will Beeper make money?* > > We charge our users a $10/monthly paid subscription service. Our pricing model allows Beeper to deliver a great product and service, while eliminating any need to profit by monetizing user data. … and the affirmation of that on their homepage … > Our business model is simple - we build a great app and earn money from those who find value in it. … I’m not sure where the narrative that their goal was anything other than to make money is coming from. They’re a business with a potentially useful product and full-time salaried employees.

They stopped charging almost immediately, as soon as the iMessage functionality was broken, and never started again. This is a strawman.

by borski 3y ago

They stopped charging almost immediately, as soon as the iMessage functionality was broken, and never started again. This is a strawman.

llm_nerd 3y ago

They literally released this as a commercial service for $2/month. That they removed fees temporarily while it was completely broken does not make my statement of absolute, verifiable, incontestable fact a "strawman". History isn't rewritten because they lost.

borski 3y ago
Fair enough. I don’t disagree they saw it as a way to make some money. I took your comment to imply that as a result of charging, their goal in fighting Apple was to “get back to charging $2/mo” which is a pretty surface-level statement. Their goal is to get iMessage on Android phones. I honestly doubt they’d care if they were the ones who eventually did it, as the main thing they eventually plan on making money off of is Beeper, not Beeper Mini.
- dylan604 3y ago
  If this was any where near the truth, they would not have started charging at all. It would have been released as a free app to gain traction, and then start charging money for it. They fact that they started charging on such a slippery app shows it was a cash grab
- JoshuaRogers 3y ago
  Based on my reading of their post where they announced it was free… > We’ve made Beeper free to use. Things have been a bit chaotic, and we’re not comfortable subjecting paying users to this. As soon as things stabilize (we hope they will), we’ll look at turning on subscriptions again. … and based on my reading of their jobs page … > *How will Beeper make money?* > > We charge our users a $10/monthly paid subscription service. Our pricing model allows Beeper to deliver a great product and service, while eliminating any need to profit by monetizing user data. … and the affirmation of that on their homepage … > Our business model is simple - we build a great app and earn money from those who find value in it. … I’m not sure where the narrative that their goal was anything other than to make money is coming from. They’re a business with a potentially useful product and full-time salaried employees.