Re:Tell HN: Twitter is growing increasingly unusable without...
by nobleach on Friday January 28, 2022 @10:19AM
(#30115639)
It was never free. The bill was simply footed by investors who believed at some point, a viable product would bring in revenue. Sure, it was free TO YOU, (it still is) but do we really think the network provider, the servers, the administration, the code maintenance are something they are obligated to provide out of the goodness of their hearts?
Re:Tell HN: Twitter is growing increasingly unusable without...
by Karunamon on Friday January 28, 2022 @09:17AM
(#30114834)
I'd call Twitter many things, but never a necessity. And the contrived person for who it is, has an account and won't be bothered by a login prompt.
Re:Tell HN: Twitter is growing increasingly unusable without...
by ThrashBeard on Friday January 28, 2022 @11:02AM
(#30116358)
If Reddit or Twitter seems a necessity to you then you have problems and you should start working on them before you go around telling what someone should be allowed to do.
Re:Tell HN: Twitter is growing increasingly unusable without...
by djakaitis on Friday January 28, 2022 @09:21AM
(#30114893)
What’s exploitative about offering a free account?
Re:Tell HN: Twitter is growing increasingly unusable without...
by ahelwer on Friday January 28, 2022 @09:52AM
(#30115304)
A bit taken aback this still needs to be explained, but the point of having an account is so they can use your email address and phone number to correlate you & your actions across the entire internet to better surveil you & serve you behavior-modifying content.
Re:Tell HN: Twitter is growing increasingly unusable without...
by goodpoint on Friday January 28, 2022 @10:40AM
(#30115964)
The "free" service is also there to hurt competition, establish market dominance and later or do all sort of bait-and-switch.
Reminder: by dominating a market a company removes options and better alternatives from the end users.
No no no, companies should not be allowed to this kind of bait and switch:
1) provide a free service
2) gain market dominance, push out competitors, and turn into a necessity for millions of users
3) create lock-in and exploit the userbase
Essential public utilities are regulated (properly, in many countries) to avoid this.
In 2022 services like ISP, mobile carriers, email and instant messaging are almost essential. Millions of people need them to work, buy food, have access to health and government services.
And yet tech companies are never held responsible.