Re:Switching from macOS: The Basics
by divanvisagie on Wednesday November 02, 2016 @08:51AM
(#12854131)
Isn't this a dark pattern though?
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No, it's not. It says "pay what you want" and you can literally pay what you want (including nothing).
Well, I think it is.
If I pay nothing, I don't pay.
I don't say "I paid zero." or "I paid nothing" unless someone asks the specific question "How much did you pay for that?"
It's obviously a way to nudge people into paying something.
edit: I made an aside about the use of the word 'donation' by cannabis collectives in the U.S. to denote 'payment' (as a way to operate as non-profits and avoid federal problems) as a reference to similarly weak wording used in a nefarious way, but I thought the relationship to the pattern here was weak, so I removed it.
When I first heard about zero-Ohm resistors I thought it was hilarious.
They do serve a purpose though.