The idea behind this comment is that if people don't care enough about the work to bother viewing it, the maker shouldn't be paid. Which I agree with; I hate the idea of government sponsorship of art no one wants. The difference here is, PEOPLE WANT THE ART, THEY JUST DON'T WANT TO PAY FOR IT. That's a huge distinction. It has value to people, but because they have the opportunity to steal it with no consequence, they do so.
By this rationale, if you had a way to sneak into concerts without buying a ticket, would you do so? If so, what percentage of the time? 100%? 50%? How would you decide?
Is the experience the same whether I pay or not? How better or worse?
What's the price of the show, not in dollars, but in work I do for the rest of society?
Do the artists aggregate to my life?
How much does it cost them to be there performing?
If the wouldn't do it, would someone else?
Basically I think your example gets a bit overcomplicated because the current market is heavily distorted by giant recording companies. It is an area that is almost fringe economics because it involves feelings and quasi-irrational judgment of value. Should you ask me if I would steal a computer (not for necessity) or if I would sneak into the bus instead of walking I'd ask mostly the same questions, but the thinking process of the decision maker would be a lot more rational and, therefore, adherent to the models that shape our economy.
How long was the turnaround between submitting to betali.st and getting featured? I've heard some people submit just a few days before going live, so by the time users get invites it's still fresh in their minds.
Actually for us it was pretty long (which I don't recommend). I think what you suggested is a much better strategy.
I think it was around 3 months so it wasn't as fresh but what I did was go through email addresses one by one, picked out the companies that sounded the most promising and opened up a dialogue to get those guys in early.
Then kept the other guys informed to try and keep them excited. Although if I would have done it just before launching I would have saved a lot of effort.
Yea that's what I'd be afraid of. It sounds like you handled it well. Since betali.st only features products that haven't fully launched yet, I just don't want to submit, and then by the time they see my submission we're live and they won't accept it. How long did it take between when you submitted to them and when you were actually featured?
How do you intend to balance the need for high quality with the desire of users to get involved in the community? Are you worried if someone can't post/comment for months after joining, they may lose interest?
Great question! Honestly, that's one of my least favorite parts of Product Hunt. I hate turning away people that want to contribute but to keep the contributions of high quality and not overwhelming, we need to curb our contributor growth.
We will be making product changes to grow the community, opening it to more people.
I wonder if this will be the next step for them; mapping all indoor and outdoor locations, integrating relevant ads into the street view of certain stores?
Having spent a few years in the finance industry, in my experience most people in my area of work were not these type A money addicts described. That said, I am confident they added no value, and made millions of dollars taking management fees in exchange for lower returns to their clients than they could have gotten in an index ETF. That might be just as big a problem: that even honest members of the industry can convince themselves they're worth their exorbitant salaries, because someone's willing to pay it.
I enjoyed this essay. Unfortunately, one of the drawbacks of tech culture is the importance of momentum/hype to bring in investors and users. Unsurprisingly, it brings out some bad apples. I do think most are going about things the right way, but maybe I'm naive.
