"Signups are not really what matters." Signups to free services matter less, relatively as well. What means something though, in nearly everyone's mind, is a

"Signups are not really what matters." Signups to free services matter less, relatively as well. What means something though, in nearly everyone's mind, is a large number. 500k free signups to a service (regardless of whether they login more than once (which is what I did btw) is more newsworthy and attention getting then a small amount of paid users paying bupkas to the traditional world. (I'm not talking about someone posting on HN about something that they put together over the weekend which earns them $1000 per month which HN finds interesting).