The free ride is over!(Internet News )


skee1
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skee1
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04/01/2002 5:09 pm
Check the page below about the free ride?

http://www.pcmike.com/


Mark
P:S Yahoo also announced on the news today its free
ride is coming to and end.
yours truly Mark Toman
# 1
chris mood
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chris mood
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04/01/2002 6:01 pm
I doubt it will happen, people will stop going to those sites, what are you supposed to do, punch in a credit card # everytime you log on?
# 2
Lordathestrings
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Lordathestrings
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04/01/2002 6:58 pm
Originally posted by chris mood
I doubt it will happen, people will stop going to those sites, what are you supposed to do, punch in a credit card # everytime you log on?
You've obviously never tried to get the latest update of an international test standard. Information is a commodity, like shoes or carrots. If you want it, you have to buy it, one way or another. This recent trend is what will finally get people to take security issues seriously. (I hope).
Lordathestrings
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www.GuitarTricks.com - Home of Online Guitar Lessons
# 3
James8831
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James8831
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04/01/2002 9:19 pm
If an "electronic retailer" [does he short out in the rain?] wants my business he'd better not charge me for looking at his goods...
...and hopefully search engines and [some] forums want the most hits they can for advertising revenue..etc, so they should continue to be free . I'd hazzard a guess that a lot of personal pages and smaller traders may get hit by charges?? - who knows.

So we're unlikely to be stung to death.

Remember the [general] non-event that the year2k bug turned out to be, because we all thought our way around it.


Accuracy,you say? hmm interesting concept..
# 4
Raskolnikov
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Raskolnikov
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04/01/2002 11:07 pm
Well, I can tell you that I'm not about to pay for Yahoo mail.

Yahoo doesn't offer ANY services that are worth $30 a year.
Raskolnikov
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Careful what you wish for friend
I've been to Hell and now I'm back again

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# 5
educatedfilm
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educatedfilm
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04/01/2002 11:08 pm
correct me if i'm wrong, but about a year ago they were saying the same thing? THey were saying the free internent idea was not feasable and that companies would eventually have to charge, or go under... still, i'm typing to you popele with free internet acess :D... sounds like more scaremongering.... I hope it is anyway...
thanks for the word about it though, keep poeple well informed... as was said earlier, that's why 2k bug dissaster as predicted would "happen" didn't really do bo-diddly squat..
# 6


Joined: 03/28/24
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Joined: 03/28/24
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04/02/2002 12:47 am
The only service I liked about Yahoo was the games... I love playing chess online and smoking smart-ass kids.

Oh well, it's not worth $30 a month.
# 7
Lordathestrings
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Lordathestrings
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04/02/2002 2:11 am
A few years ago, my TV cable company announced it was going to raise my monthly rate to cover the addition of a bunch of channels I didn't want. At the time, I was paying $30 a month for cable, and $48 every [u]three[/u] months for unlimited 56k dial-up access. I was online for a couple of hours every night, and watching maybe two hours of TV a week. It took me about a millisecond to make my choice. I haven't had cable TV in years. And I now get ADSL net access for $35 a month.

As for free content on sites, you only get what someone pays for. When I was first venturing onto the Web, I joined Ottawa-Carleton FreeNet. It was one of the only truly free ISP's in the world, based in Carleton University. It was able to operate on volounteer labour and donated equipment. I don't know if it still exists. I do know it was forced to start charging members a few dollars a year. Sites cost money to operate. The costs for server space and bandwidth can add up in a hurry. Those pop-up adds that drive us crazy on this site are put there by companies that help pay Jon's operating costs.

There ain't no free lunch.
Lordathestrings
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www.GuitarTricks.com - Home of Online Guitar Lessons
# 8
kingdavid
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kingdavid
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04/02/2002 10:19 am
I'm not a "business guy" or anything,so i can't go into all that jargon about markets and stuff,but still,I can put in my two cents worth of whatever is being put in.:)
Now,first off.I have a yahoo e-mail account.I also have a website(ok,I'll update it to start looking like a website)also by the courtesies of yahoo.Now,if that e-mail account wasn't free,I most likely wouldn't have it.I definitely wouldn't have the site.The only reason i signed up for these "services' was coz they was for free.And that fact was trumpeted all over for me to see.(Incidentally,although guitartricks is free,I think I'd pay to be on this forum if I had to.But then again I'd need to be on it to realise how good it is,and maybe I wouldn't have signed up in the first place if it wasn't for free to begin with.Go figure).Here's the two cents I was talking bout:markets onlt exist when there are things to consume and cinsumers to consume them.This market(the free internet) exists because the consumers become consumers by reason of the "goods" being free.If the goods weren't free,you wouldn't have consumers.And if you don't have consumers,then,poooof!your market's gone.You get a very nice scenery when those birds come to eat the grain you put on the bird table.You could take pictures of the birds.Maybe even charge people to see the birds.But sooner than (not soon as,sooner than)you stop putting out the grain,the bids dissappear.
I believe that if these things started being charged for,people would run away,probably so much that yahoo and co. would make less money charging those who remain than they were making when there was all that traffic and the advertisers thought it would pay to pay for banner ads.That will be for yahoo and co. to figure.It's a free market,and I think that at the end of the day,market forces will prevail.
Do I sound like your business 101 lecturer?Maybe.Most of these 'technical' issues emanate from normal life,and most laymen like me can figure them out.
Daniel:I thought you pay about 40-50 dollars per month for unlimited access on cable?You saying you talking here for free?Just wondering.
# 9
Lordathestrings
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Lordathestrings
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04/02/2002 5:42 pm
Its important to make a distinction between hardware and content. Your Internet Service Provider (ISP) looks after your hardware by charging you for access and/or selling advertising to other businesses. The content is provided by the people who operate the sites we visit.

The content on this site, for instance, is provided by members who contribute. The hardware that the site resides on is provided by Jon, who recovers his costs by selling advertising space to other businesses. Without financial support from outside sources to cover the hardware costs, Jon would have to charge us for the content.

Other sites, where the owners provide the content, must cover their costs for both hardware and content, by tapping either, or both, of these revenue sources. Merchants offer 'free' access to their online catalogs, but you can be certain that the operating costs for the hardware and the content, are included in the prices of the merchandise being offered.

If Yahoo et al, are looking at charging their clients for access, it probably means that the revenue from other sources, like advertising, is not covering their operating costs. I'll say it again: There ain't no free lunch!
Lordathestrings
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www.GuitarTricks.com - Home of Online Guitar Lessons
# 10
kingdavid
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kingdavid
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04/03/2002 8:54 am
Well,if what you're saying is that nothing is for free per se,as in someone somewhere has to pay for whatever it costs to provide whatever is being provided,then there I'll agree with you.But my bottom line was,take e-mail for instance.How many people,who presently have free accounts(free as in they don't pay for the e-mail)would have these accounts if they had to pay?Another example;I'm sure very many people who visit this site one way or another use the tricks posted here.How many,on the other hand,pay for those online tution packages,whether you down load them,use them at the site they're at,or are sent over to you in,say,C.D format.In this second example,those who pay pay for content,the content here being guitar instruction,as opposed to flesh and blood teachers.
All I'm saying is that it's gonna be very hard to make people to pay for something they've been getting for free.And further,it's necesary to establish whether the said people would partake whatever yo want to now sell to them if it hadn't been free initially.I think it all depends with the content,coz even as there exists free tv networks,cable tv providers still make money.Think of the local tv network that airs in your area;would you start to pay if they decided that from now on,you'll have to pay?Maybe,if the content became as good as the content which you find worth payin for in cable.
It's just that the business models are different.
# 11
Lordathestrings
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Lordathestrings
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04/03/2002 1:51 pm
I think we're pretty much in agreement, here. To use your examples, enough people contribute content to this site to 'pay for' the people who use that content. As to whether people would use any product that they couldn't get for free, the market is full of such products. And cable TV gets people to pay for their product by offering better quality or choice than the broadcasters put on the airwaves. So you do get what you (or someone else can) pay for.
Lordathestrings
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www.GuitarTricks.com - Home of Online Guitar Lessons
# 12
kingdavid
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kingdavid
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04/04/2002 8:06 am
YEP.
# 13

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