RE: FN-FORUM: Re: FN-FORUM: RE: Interesting...

date posted 19th November 2007 21:22

Carrie wrote:
> I would like to remind Gary that the list is provided free, as is,=20
> by Dan and Andy (thanks guys!). Who always do their best to make=20
> work for us.

> It is what it is, take it or leave it,


Mmmm .. actually, it seems reasonable to assume that the forum provides =
a
source of income to Freelancers.net, through the advertising signature =
in
each post and the significant "Google honeypot" effect of the vast =
archive
of posts, leading to increased AdWords revenue.

I don't agree that advertising-supported services owe nothing to their
community. Dan and Andy have created a fantastic resource (and bear the
on-going hosting costs of), for which we must be grateful.=20

However, the key value of this list is the community, not the (sometimes
quirky) technology. The alternative perspective is that the community =
are
providing their time and expertise for free, without which the service =
has
little value.

If Freelancers.net owes nothing to its forum users because the service =
is
free (advertising supported), then why should MS be obliged to fix =
problems
in Internet Explorer, Google fix bugs in Gmail, etc? The answer is that =
if
the problems become severe/irritating enough, users will switch to an
alternative service (e.g., WAUK, Google Groups, etc).=20

In the highly competitive web services/software space, where user =
'momentum'
is critical, IMO "you get what you pay for" no longer holds.

Cheers, Ben

--
Ben Johnson, Neogic Web Solutions
// design . development . managed hosting

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