Comments on: Do You Need The Best Things in Life to be Free?

By: aditya

aditya — Thu, 09 Apr 2009 17:57:46 +0000

love and compassion , sacrifice , penance . social service , eat less , work more . smile more , remember the creation is best

By: Becca

Becca — Mon, 16 Feb 2009 01:10:15 +0000

I think the beauty of social media tools is that they are free. After all, since Facebook has all but replaced real fact-time, why should we have to pay to say ‘hello’ to a friend from college? Charging for such things would defeat the purpose and the sites would suffer, in my opinion. I also think that things like blogging are just exploding right now, because businesses are realizing that everyone had a blog these days. The number of blogging jobs are steadily on the rise, which is impressive given the state of the economy right now. My point is, the whole appeal of social media, like Twitter, Facebook and even blogs, is that they are a free way to connect. Take that away and you’ve changed the whole nature of the beast.

By: Ian

Ian — Sun, 15 Feb 2009 13:29:05 +0000

“how much would you be willing to pay before the cost exceeded the value?”

The answer to that depends on how much the vast majority of users are prepared to pay. I get a lot of traffic from Facebook for, I suspect, the simple fact that Facebook gets a lot of traffic. So if Facebook charged more than most people were prepared to pay and stopped using the service then there’d be little point in me using it.

By: Stephen - Rat Race Trap

Stephen - Rat Race Trap — Sat, 14 Feb 2009 23:08:42 +0000

Nothing is free. Somebody is paying for it. Do I pay for “free” TV? Yes, I get 40 minutes of content per hour of watching. And actually the best is rarely free. The best costs and those who want it pay for it. Who thinks NBC has better content than HBO? You get a lot better content on the net when you pay for it as just one example. Maybe all the free lovers don’t realize it because they aren’t paying for anything.

Don’t get me wrong, I use “free” services all the time. But nobody owes it to me and I get what I pay for. I have no right to gripe when it is gone.

By: Webomatica

Webomatica — Fri, 13 Feb 2009 23:14:53 +0000

This has become a huge pet peeve of mine. From the user’s point of view, right now is the absolute *worst* time for formerly free companies to start charging. It’s a recession, did you get the memo? Anything above the bare necessities is under scrutiny for elimination from the budget, and any service that used to be free just attracts attention and begs to be cut.

Should have charged money when times were good, not when times are bad – totally backwards thinking on the part of any of these “freemium” companies.

By: Michael

Michael — Fri, 13 Feb 2009 21:06:46 +0000

I see commercials on TV that ask people to text a certain number for some kind of dumb service. Why can’t Facebook, Twitter, etc., charge two or three cents per incoming cell-texted message? Or even a penny?

By: Big Slick Design

Big Slick Design — Fri, 13 Feb 2009 20:24:29 +0000

I personally wouldn’t be using any of those services if they were not free.

I mean, I just don’t have the kind of expendable cash to spend on things like that if I want to maintain an internet connection, among other things.

By: Michael

Michael — Fri, 13 Feb 2009 20:19:46 +0000

As soon as Twitter, Facebook, etc., begin charging for anything I actively use, I’ll stop using them. There are too many services out there willing to be free for me to spend money on any other service. This is reality. Most social users will stop using it, too, gutting its usefulness for businesses.