If people tried to pay for other services like they try to pay for programming

Re:If people tried to pay for other services like they try t... by softbuilder on Tuesday December 14, 2010 @08:41PM (#2006643)

The difference is that a CD is a commodity. People are not. Certainly there is a marketplace at work, but even if you do view programmers or designers as commoditized, no one wants to be treated that way. It's ugly behavior. (Although in my experience that is usually ignorance, not malice.)

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Re:If people tried to pay for other services like they try t... by daniel-cussen on Tuesday December 14, 2010 @10:32PM (#2006934)

I'd be fine with being treated like a commodity as long as that commodity is a type of bullion.

I find that the term "commoditized" refers to goods or services that one, are all identical and b) are really, really cheap, like most commodities in the late 90s.

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Re:If people tried to pay for other services like they try t... by eof on Tuesday December 14, 2010 @09:19PM (#2006750)

CD?

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Re:If people tried to pay for other services like they try t... by dholowiski on Tuesday December 14, 2010 @09:21PM (#2006757)

Shiny things they used to put un-ripped MP3's on.

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Re:If people tried to pay for other services like they try t... by noonespecial on Tuesday December 14, 2010 @09:27PM (#2006773)

Un-ripped MP3's? I thought they were just how AOL mailed software.

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Re:If people tried to pay for other services like they try t... by noahth on Wednesday December 15, 2010 @02:49AM (#2007399)

for a while I tried to start a collection of those "free install!" discs from various ISPs. it got too depressing.

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Re:If people tried to pay for other services like they try t... by InclinedPlane on Tuesday December 14, 2010 @10:07PM (#2006871)

AOL? Is that some sort of mass-market related startup?

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Re:If people tried to pay for other services like they try t... by billswift on Wednesday December 15, 2010 @02:29AM (#2007362)

Not a startup, more a winding-down.

By the way, is AOL still doing that? I used to get a couple every year, but I haven't received one in several years now.

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Re:If people tried to pay for other services like they try t... by InclinedPlane on Wednesday December 15, 2010 @05:02AM (#2007615)

The joke is that AOL is so out of the game and so irrelevant to the modern internet that people might not have even heard of them at this point, mistaking them for some sort of startup that focused on mass-mailings. Though, as far as I can tell, they don't do that anymore.

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