Originally Posted by
bbbean
Programmers have to eat, servers cost money, graphic design, tech support, legal, etc all cost money. If you don't like the product, don't use it. That's fine. But I'm not sure why you think the notion of freeloading is odd for social media.
FWIW, I'd pay for a great many social media services, and do. If I'm taking advantage of the service they offer, it's worth something. If it was worth nothing, I wouldn't use it.
Yup, I'm a programmer. I work for a bank, doing fairly boring work that brings value to our clients and, in turn, my bosses. That's why they pay me to do it.
Maybe you'd pay for social media. Personally, I barely touch social media anyway. Would you pay for literally every website you hit? Come on man, be realistic. Not every geek with a website deserves "just the price of a cup of coffee per month". It's amazing those words are still uttered unironically.
If they don't want people using the product for free, they shouldn't make it available for free. That's fine. But I'm not sure why you think the notion of using a free service for free is odd.
If they want people (or just me) to pay, they need to act like a business doing things reliably, with features that can be counted on. They don't act like a company; they still act like a couple of guys in a garage turning things on and off when their feelings are hurt.
Again, the fact that they haven't made money yet is telling. Maybe they will now, but I doubt it.