"Making simple software and charging heaps because we are hip and edgy..."
Every time I see things such as these I think: 20-something, doesn't understand money ($20/month seems "too much"), doesn't understand business, not much sense of humor either, mostly pissed about other being succesful...
The kind of people who write M$ with a dollar sign.
That's the line that threw me off too. "Hip and edgy" is an amateur-hour schoolyard taunt. "Making simple software and charging heaps" would have been enough and kind of funny.
And the meanness made me overlook the funny bits like the subheader about less and more, and some of the sections, the quote by Ghandi, and the completely gratuitous "Happy Wednesday" way up in the corner that changes, depending on the day (http://stackoverflow.com/questions/19865106/how-does-37signa...).
I think it is suggesting that 37signals' software can be easily replaced by free alternatives (look at the links): google (gmail/calendar, etc.) accounts, skype, yammer, trello.
Based on the date the link was submitted to reddit was done around the same time as the Curebit fiasco. I like 37Signals but admittedly they did behave like arrogant aholes during it. Not something I'd expect from such well respected members of the tech community. The bit where DHH tweets their investors is what does it for me.
Yeah, and it bashes them for not having big-money VCs and having to bootstrap and thus having to be more frugal and charge more. In my mind that makes 37signals more "independent" than companies with big-money VC backers.
Why are you bragging about making a bunch of uninformed, knee-jerk assumptions about someone you know nothing about? And why is this trash the top comment? Whether or not $20/month is too much does not depend on whether you have $20 to spend or not, it depends on the value you get from that $20. Products with very little value, and which have $0 alternatives that provide more value are not worth $20.
>Why are you bragging about making a bunch of uninformed, knee-jerk assumptions about someone you know nothing about?
You mean I'm in the bad making assumptions about a person making "a bunch of uninformed, knee-jerk assumptions" for other people in the form of a mean "parody" site?
Besides, who told you I "know nothing about" that person? I know what he wrote, and I know the tone he used. And I also have a pretty good sense of the kind of handle he'd use if he were to comment on HN.
>And why is this trash the top comment?
Because people agree and voted for it to be. It's social news site in case you don't know.
>Whether or not $20/month is too much does not depend on whether you have $20 to spend or not, it depends on the value you get from that $20. Products with very little value, and which have $0 alternatives that provide more value are not worth $20.
The value of something doesn't depend on what you say, it depends on what the market is willing to pay for it. Since they have a 10+ year, multi-million business with millions of customers, based on charging what they charge, I'd say the argument is pretty much settled.
If it feels like it ain't worth that much to you, you can use something else. I missed the part when using their service was mandatory. Or do you do parody sites for every "too expensive for me" product you find?
Why do you think responding to "you are making a bunch of uninformed assumptions" with more uninformed assumptions is productive? Protip: some of us saw this site when it was made 2 years ago. Some of us are even aware of the context of 37signals founders being abusive on twitter that the site was created in response to. That does not mean we are all the people who made the site.
Every time I see things such as these I think: 20-something, doesn't understand money ($20/month seems "too much"), doesn't understand business, not much sense of humor either, mostly pissed about other being succesful...
The kind of people who write M$ with a dollar sign.