Nice examples, but unfortunately they don't quite fit. You see, with those examples, you are paying for the service, and you expect to pay for the service as much as you use it. With downloading music, the consumer's mind automatically thinks "ok, this is a PRODUCT that I am purchasing, I should be able to keep it forever like any other product purchase I would make." That is not the case in this situation however. And while I agree there might be a target market that just wants fresh new music etc, there are TONS of free net radio stations that they've probably heard about by now.
No kidding. As someone in their target demographic who also happens to be in the advertising industry, I damn near vomited when I saw those ads. I hope their media planner got fired for suggesting they put those pieces of crap in the Superbowl.
If they want to attract our target demographic, they're going to have to do a LOT better than holding up boards with some lengthy equation which I couldn't read on a small tv screen and didn't care to figure out while having the Napster logo on it. Out of curiosity, I'm too lazy to check, anybody know which agency did those ads?
Now, in response to the grandparent, you're right on the money. And the iPod hardly locks things out, it just locks other proprietary content out. I don't pay for my music (I mostly download long DJ mixes), and its all in.mp3 format. And guess what, works just fine! The problem comes when companies like Real and Napster want to make money with their file types on the iPod. Suddenly THEY are the ones who are seen as faulty, not Apple.
"You're 100% correct. I saw some of their new TV spots during the super bowl, and if you watch carefully, there is fine print at the bottom of the screen that says something like "Songs expire if you cancel your monthly membership"..."
I don't know ANYBODY in their target demographic who watched their commercials carefully. They were complete crap, not interesting, and failed to make a good selling point even though the whole commercial consisted of them trying to explain why their service was a better deal.
Oh, and they stuck the Napster cat head in a bunch of places for people to make the connection. Thats about it. If they want our money, they're going to have to do a lot better than that.
"Piquepaille, though, at least handcrafts his Slashdot submissions and selects particular stories. In general, I don't understand why people bitch about him so much. He submits stories and the editors choose to accept them."
If you knew more about the situation you'd know that the reason people bitch about him is because we believe that he is paying Slashdot for a "slashvertisement" in which he gets his stories posted for an undisclosed sum that we never hear of trading hands. Conspiracy theory? Maybe. But given the fact that there's no way his stories wouldn't have been submitted by other people who posted links to the ORIGINAL, you have to think something is up.
Well, maybe thats why tv torrents is still up. However, I personally am pissed because Loki Torrent was a good site for bbc documentaries. If anybody has a better site to download those where people actually seed things, please let me know.
I was as well. And I hope it doesn't last long against the torrent (no pun intended) of mischievous people out there who might want to swap that image out for another one *wink* *wink* *nudge* *nudge*
The thing is that while legally, its a black and white issue, however the situation is more complex than that with Photoshop. You see, Adobe owes its popularity to the fact that not only is it incredibly good software, but that it is also the number one most pirated piece of software on the net.
How does that make them money? Well, they get the REAL dough from corporate licenses, and guess what software all these graphic designers make their companies buy when they need to do work?
So I have a hard time believing Adobe is doing anything BUT profiting from the pirating.
"
Any day now, credit card companies will start offering Frequent Flier Light-Years, or something like that..."
And then announce that in an effort to cut costs, they're removing pillows from your cryogenic sleep chamber. Man that's going to be a long uncomfortable flight...
When you are the #1 destination on the net, and everybody comes to you for searching, then yes, ad sales are more than enough to drive a profitable business, especially when those ads are found to be the most effective advertising method on the entire internet.
Once RFID gets easy to use and setup in the home, you can guarantee Google will have a Google Map of your house and it could tell you where it is by searchign through Google Desktop.
I when companies hold these contests. Normally they'd have to pay a shitload more to hire an agency or a freelance designer for this, but instead they offer to pay a paltry sum of $500 and get to pick from all the available entries and you get absolutely no rights to the work.
Well, I for one have always fantasized about a wearable computer that I could search for things with and it would display those locations as bright pillars of light that would only be visable through the glasses. I think Google will be ready for that.
On another note, I have to say that this was the first time I tried Google Maps, and holy crap, I will never touch Mapquest EVER again.
Few things on the internet have blown me away like this has. Not only is it one of the most intuitive things I've ever seen, it just WORKS. And nowhere near as cluttered as Mapquest.
Well, if it never occurred to you, perhaps you aren't as aware of some of the underlying mindsets on Slashdot as I thought you were. And not just Slashdot, but society as a whole.
And hey, I never said you had to convert the world to your point of view. All I did was point out why people had a problem with this. It seems you are refusing to acknowledge that this mindset exists because you seem to not want to address the problem at hand, and instead say "well, I'll do it anyways, I don't care about them".
And while I'm trying REALLY hard to not make this a personal attack, as I personally don't think you meant ill, keep in mind that this is the same mindset spammers have.
And you are more than welcome to continue to use referral links, just be aware that there will be people who will comment on the scumminess of such behavior, such as myself.
The fact of the matter is, you are paying the game company to use their service. You are agreeing to a contract with their rules in it.
In other words, you are not entitled to ANYTHING. They can make those rules for whatever reason they want, but as long as you pay them and are under that contract, you play by their rules or you don't play at all. There really is no point in debating this.
I hate spam too, and in addition to all those things you listed, I would include advertorials.
The magazines that are scummy enough to do "advertorials" where they write an editorial and mention a product as part of paid placement in some way would make the same exact argument that you are making.
I'm SURE they'd claim that they wouldn't put that there unless it was of interest to people.
And frankly, if you are so gungho about the fact that the links you post are relevant, and important pieces of information, then why would you even consider damaging your credibility with the referral link just for a few lousy dollars?
"What are the new movements going on in the electronic music world that the mainstream has yet to become aware of?"
While I am no real expert on electronic music, I WAS in the rave scene for quite some time, and I don't mean as a kandy kid who just went to roll. I went for the music, and I can honestly say you will see some of the most innovative stuff in the rave scene. That is where the underground is.
Now as for styles, I recommend EVERYBODY check out Ishkur's Guide to Electronic Music. It gives an EXTREMELY comprehensive look at the different genres that exist, and even for someone as myself who thought I was familiar with them, I still found tons I never heard of. Plus, they give lots of samples of famous/definitive songs for each genre.
Personally, I think drum and bass is the next type of music that will go mainstream. We're already starting to see it happen as some of the more common beat samples get worked into some pop songs or trance songs, and I've also noticed quite a bit of it in commercials as well. So definitely going to say drum and bass, or possibly 2-step, since its really just R&B and hiphop with the 2-step beat, which will let it gain popularity quickly in the hip-hop scene which in turn seems to be whats affecting the mainstream nowadays.
I know I personally detest when people put referral links in story blurbs because there is no way for me to know that they aren't just posting the story for the sake of trying to make money.
Now, I realize that this probably wasn't your motive as you claim, but one can never be too sure on the internet. I know if I wanted to do this, right after the story got greenlighted, the first thing I'd do is post about how I probably won't get much money, etc. and try to start a grassroots effort behind it to gain credibility.
So my point is that if you intend for us to view you and your story with any grain of credibility, you need to strip all financial incentives from the message.
This is like when we see "industry reports" with "dire warnings about spyware" which happen to come from experts at companies who sell anti-spyware tools as shown by this excellent post in this story from earlier today.
Any time it is evident that someone posting on here has a financial incentive for us to buy a product they are discussing, or whatever it may be, it immediately sets off alarms in our heads that say "the whole purpose of this spiel is to get us to buy this so they make money". And since I can see you are a long time slashdot user, I'm sure you know the general response around here to that kind of message.
However, I am a bit annoyed at your statement of how you routinely put referral links on Slashdot, yet you don't think you are link spamming. A bit contradictory eh?
I agree with your statement about China rising to power in the future. They already have most of the world by the balls in terms of what they manufacture for us.
However, as a society, I think they are far behind even America. The reason they are able to make such bold moves forward is since they have a single leader who basically has say over everything that happens, and has absolute control.
The reason we get so bogged down in the states is because everything is done by committee. And by that I mean that whenever we have the chance to make some huge scientific leap forward that could benefit the entire world, whether it be nuclear research, stem cells, etc, too many people get too much of a say in the matter, so you end up with a line drawn in the sand, and people arguing either side, while absolutely nothing moves forward.
" For years, large corporate game publishers have been setting all the
rules for gamers and game developers alike. Valve software, because
they are privately funded, has a chance to change the way games are
not only distributed, but the amount of control that the corporate
pointy-hairs wield. What do gamers do? They promptly shoot
themselves in the foot by whining about how steam is n't perfect."
Wow, I don't know how you could possibly be more blind to whats happening. Valve most certainly has a chance to change the amount of control the corporate pointy-hairs wield, and low and behold, they now have even MORE power of what you can and cannot do with software that you have purchased. And if you think its fun playing all the free mods for the game, wait until they start buying them up and charging for them all. Oh wait, thats already starting to happen.
I really don't know what it will take to make gamers realize that Valve now has them by the balls and can twist them whenever they want. Valve lost all my respect with this Steam fiasco, and while I commend them on their new attempts at distribution, the cost of using this distribution method is chilling. This is NOT a step in the right direction, this is a step forward and two steps back.
The problem I see with pro-gaming commentators is that there's no real way for them to watch everything at once in order to be able to announce the good stuff.
In real sports, you have centralized action that everybody can watch, and its easy to see where the action is. In FPS, you have lots of corridors, different elevated levels, ect.
There's no possible way for a spectator to track all this let alone a commentator. Seeing as how the sole purpose of a commentator is to talk to fans about where the action's at, how will they be able to do that if even THEY don't know where the actions at since there is so much going on at once?
I personally wish I could get the BBC in the states. They consistently air interesting things, and I would definitely pay for it. PBS plays second fiddle to the BBC.
What distribution costs? If the fans are paying for it, and thus gain some substantial say over things, why can't they just release it on the internet for free (or cheap) via bit-torrent and show the rest of the networks that *gasp* people want to get their content that way.
I guarantee if they did that, and it was wildly successful, which I have no doubt it would be, you would see tons of networks jumping on that bandwagon.
Slashdot Mirror
If they want to attract our target demographic, they're going to have to do a LOT better than holding up boards with some lengthy equation which I couldn't read on a small tv screen and didn't care to figure out while having the Napster logo on it. Out of curiosity, I'm too lazy to check, anybody know which agency did those ads?
Now, in response to the grandparent, you're right on the money. And the iPod hardly locks things out, it just locks other proprietary content out. I don't pay for my music (I mostly download long DJ mixes), and its all in .mp3 format. And guess what, works just fine! The problem comes when companies like Real and Napster want to make money with their file types on the iPod. Suddenly THEY are the ones who are seen as faulty, not Apple.
I don't know ANYBODY in their target demographic who watched their commercials carefully. They were complete crap, not interesting, and failed to make a good selling point even though the whole commercial consisted of them trying to explain why their service was a better deal.
Oh, and they stuck the Napster cat head in a bunch of places for people to make the connection. Thats about it. If they want our money, they're going to have to do a lot better than that.
If you knew more about the situation you'd know that the reason people bitch about him is because we believe that he is paying Slashdot for a "slashvertisement" in which he gets his stories posted for an undisclosed sum that we never hear of trading hands. Conspiracy theory? Maybe. But given the fact that there's no way his stories wouldn't have been submitted by other people who posted links to the ORIGINAL, you have to think something is up.
How does that make them money? Well, they get the REAL dough from corporate licenses, and guess what software all these graphic designers make their companies buy when they need to do work?
So I have a hard time believing Adobe is doing anything BUT profiting from the pirating.
"Holy shit, you can download movies for free off the internet?!"
Aside from giant robots...
And then announce that in an effort to cut costs, they're removing pillows from your cryogenic sleep chamber. Man that's going to be a long uncomfortable flight...
On another note, I have to say that this was the first time I tried Google Maps, and holy crap, I will never touch Mapquest EVER again.
Few things on the internet have blown me away like this has. Not only is it one of the most intuitive things I've ever seen, it just WORKS. And nowhere near as cluttered as Mapquest.
And hey, I never said you had to convert the world to your point of view. All I did was point out why people had a problem with this. It seems you are refusing to acknowledge that this mindset exists because you seem to not want to address the problem at hand, and instead say "well, I'll do it anyways, I don't care about them".
And while I'm trying REALLY hard to not make this a personal attack, as I personally don't think you meant ill, keep in mind that this is the same mindset spammers have.
And you are more than welcome to continue to use referral links, just be aware that there will be people who will comment on the scumminess of such behavior, such as myself.
In other words, you are not entitled to ANYTHING. They can make those rules for whatever reason they want, but as long as you pay them and are under that contract, you play by their rules or you don't play at all. There really is no point in debating this.
The magazines that are scummy enough to do "advertorials" where they write an editorial and mention a product as part of paid placement in some way would make the same exact argument that you are making.
I'm SURE they'd claim that they wouldn't put that there unless it was of interest to people.
And frankly, if you are so gungho about the fact that the links you post are relevant, and important pieces of information, then why would you even consider damaging your credibility with the referral link just for a few lousy dollars?
While I am no real expert on electronic music, I WAS in the rave scene for quite some time, and I don't mean as a kandy kid who just went to roll. I went for the music, and I can honestly say you will see some of the most innovative stuff in the rave scene. That is where the underground is.
Now as for styles, I recommend EVERYBODY check out Ishkur's Guide to Electronic Music. It gives an EXTREMELY comprehensive look at the different genres that exist, and even for someone as myself who thought I was familiar with them, I still found tons I never heard of. Plus, they give lots of samples of famous/definitive songs for each genre.
Personally, I think drum and bass is the next type of music that will go mainstream. We're already starting to see it happen as some of the more common beat samples get worked into some pop songs or trance songs, and I've also noticed quite a bit of it in commercials as well. So definitely going to say drum and bass, or possibly 2-step, since its really just R&B and hiphop with the 2-step beat, which will let it gain popularity quickly in the hip-hop scene which in turn seems to be whats affecting the mainstream nowadays.
Now, I realize that this probably wasn't your motive as you claim, but one can never be too sure on the internet. I know if I wanted to do this, right after the story got greenlighted, the first thing I'd do is post about how I probably won't get much money, etc. and try to start a grassroots effort behind it to gain credibility.
So my point is that if you intend for us to view you and your story with any grain of credibility, you need to strip all financial incentives from the message.
This is like when we see "industry reports" with "dire warnings about spyware" which happen to come from experts at companies who sell anti-spyware tools as shown by this excellent post in this story from earlier today.
Any time it is evident that someone posting on here has a financial incentive for us to buy a product they are discussing, or whatever it may be, it immediately sets off alarms in our heads that say "the whole purpose of this spiel is to get us to buy this so they make money". And since I can see you are a long time slashdot user, I'm sure you know the general response around here to that kind of message.
However, I am a bit annoyed at your statement of how you routinely put referral links on Slashdot, yet you don't think you are link spamming. A bit contradictory eh?
However, as a society, I think they are far behind even America. The reason they are able to make such bold moves forward is since they have a single leader who basically has say over everything that happens, and has absolute control.
The reason we get so bogged down in the states is because everything is done by committee. And by that I mean that whenever we have the chance to make some huge scientific leap forward that could benefit the entire world, whether it be nuclear research, stem cells, etc, too many people get too much of a say in the matter, so you end up with a line drawn in the sand, and people arguing either side, while absolutely nothing moves forward.
Wow, I don't know how you could possibly be more blind to whats happening. Valve most certainly has a chance to change the amount of control the corporate pointy-hairs wield, and low and behold, they now have even MORE power of what you can and cannot do with software that you have purchased. And if you think its fun playing all the free mods for the game, wait until they start buying them up and charging for them all. Oh wait, thats already starting to happen.
I really don't know what it will take to make gamers realize that Valve now has them by the balls and can twist them whenever they want. Valve lost all my respect with this Steam fiasco, and while I commend them on their new attempts at distribution, the cost of using this distribution method is chilling. This is NOT a step in the right direction, this is a step forward and two steps back.
In real sports, you have centralized action that everybody can watch, and its easy to see where the action is. In FPS, you have lots of corridors, different elevated levels, ect.
There's no possible way for a spectator to track all this let alone a commentator. Seeing as how the sole purpose of a commentator is to talk to fans about where the action's at, how will they be able to do that if even THEY don't know where the actions at since there is so much going on at once?
I guarantee if they did that, and it was wildly successful, which I have no doubt it would be, you would see tons of networks jumping on that bandwagon.