Re:Tell HN: There needs to be a “right to speak with a human”
by jjav on Thursday March 24, 2022 @03:55PM
(#30794619)
> Or how about GitHub? If they were obligated to provide phone support to anyone with an account, their only option would be to disable all free accounts.
That's not necessarily a bad thing.
Sure, it's convenient to have a free github account. I get it, I have one.
But what motivates github to give out free accounts? It is most definitely not that they are a benevolent company doing it as a free community service because they're nice. No, they do it for three main reasons:
1. Get individuals familiar with and hooked on the service so they'll promote it as a paid service at their workplace.
2. Build the network effect that helps them. "Everyone is on github", so you must be too.
3. Build a moat against up and coming possible competitors. If the baseline is free, it's harder for a newcomer to build revenue in that space to compete.
All of these are self-serving interestes, they help github (which is fine) but they also hinder potential competition (not good) and build a tendency towards monopolistic services (very bad).
That's not necessarily a bad thing.
Sure, it's convenient to have a free github account. I get it, I have one.
But what motivates github to give out free accounts? It is most definitely not that they are a benevolent company doing it as a free community service because they're nice. No, they do it for three main reasons:
1. Get individuals familiar with and hooked on the service so they'll promote it as a paid service at their workplace.
2. Build the network effect that helps them. "Everyone is on github", so you must be too.
3. Build a moat against up and coming possible competitors. If the baseline is free, it's harder for a newcomer to build revenue in that space to compete.
All of these are self-serving interestes, they help github (which is fine) but they also hinder potential competition (not good) and build a tendency towards monopolistic services (very bad).