It's free; stop whining
April 2, 2008
Soma FM is arguably the best free online radio service. As of this writing they have 13 channels. Most, like their most popular Groove Salad, are electronic/ambient, though Indie Pop Rocks is also immensely popular.
Unlike other services Soma FM is not supported by ads. Instead, Rusty Hodge (or other Somalumnus) insert short requests for support every sixty to ninety minutes. The request goes something like “Support independent music by supporting Soma FM. Help keep us ad-free by donating today.” You can probably tell by the length of the message that it lasts maybe fifteen seconds. The calls for support are not intrusive, unlike ads on other radio stations which may last up to 30 seconds each.
Despite being 100% free, people still complain about the service. On Soma FM’s guestbook, someone called “mick” posted this:
even though i listen to “drone zone” a lot, i think that you are placing a lot of sickening calls for financial support with a very complaining softy voice. this seems to be such a fossil artifact, that i wish you would rather stop radiating radio than keeping on complaining. just move out of your loft and shut down the apparatus.
Station director Rusty Hodge posted what I consider to be the perfect response:
Usually when people get something for free, they say thanks, they don’t insult the people giving it to them. If you don’t like what we’re doing, don’t listen. Each and every listener costs us significant money. If you’d prefer us to run 5 minutes of advertising an hour we could do that too. Considering how infrequently we play those messages for support on Drone Zone, I think even you would like the advertising less.
The user is complaining about a free service, which costs over $25,000 per month to run. The bulk of this cost is made up by listener donations, however the ratio of listeners to listeners who donate is quite small.
Unfortunately, when people complain about free services they’re simply putting down the provider. The provider is generally being altruistic, fronting one’s own cash, resources and time to offer the service or product.
If you don’t like something that’s free, simply move on. If you would like to give some constructive criticism, to perhaps enhance the service or product, then by all means, do so. However, simply denigrating the provider is an act of sedition; there’s nothing constructive to convey.
This applies to open source software as well. When an author of software offers it to the community freely, that’s an act of charity. And to disparage that person’s act of charity is simply rude.
This happened to me after I released my Python ORM to the world. Two users posted roughly the same thing, but one really pissed me off:
Sorry, that’s a waste of manpower. We have already enough half-backed ORMs. We have solutions that work. Why do you guys always have the need for reinventing wheels?
One quick note to the author of this comment: you should probably tell the same thing to Guido himself, replacing “ORM” with “scripting language”.
In developing my ORM, I learned quite a bit more about Python simply by extending my experience. This exercise improved my capabilities and paved the way for other projects including PyActiveResource.
To tell me I’ve simply wasted my time is a slap in the face. If you want me to work on something else, like a project whose development has waned, just ask. But if you’re just going to dump all over my work, then piss off. Your vitriolic attitude is not welcome here.
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Comments
Hi Jared,
I too will never understand why people seemingly derive so much satisfaction from deriding others who put their work out there with no strings attached. I wonder if these people go to art shows and ask the artists why they put some much time and energy into something that was emotionally rewarding for them and then put it out for display. I doubt it, because that actually requires personal contact - something that these people probably have significant difficulties with already.
SomaFM rocks! I hope they are able to keep it going. Which reminds, I need to go contribute right now :)
If you haven't heard of them, check out KCRW.com. Based in LA, they have a lot of great shows focusing on all manner of independent and eclectic music.
Regards
-Brian
Posted by Brian Luft
remember when MS opened some of their stuff? 9 out of 10 people fighting a "holy open everything war" complained about it...
Sad but true,... you give them something they want and they try to get everything you have...
Posted by Timo Zimmermann
Timo: Eh, the issue with your comparison is Microsoft very rarely "gives" anything away in any philosophical (or, more importantly, *licensing*) sense of the term.
They "gave away" IE, and we've all seen what *that's* done for Netscape, for HTML standards, and even for computer security :)
When they give away something, it tends to be "you're free to use this ... on our platforms, under our terms, for purposes we approve." They're free to do this, of course -- they wrote it, it's theirs, and they can license it any way they want, but they're rarely really "giving" it away.
By and large, though, I'm in agreement here. I wasn't aware of SomaFM until I saw this post, and I'm quite glad for it since they run *far* fewer ads than Digitally Imported does. The di.fm ads irritate the unholy hell out of me (it's not the "subscribe to our premium service to get rid of the ads" or the "we're looking for programmers" -- it's those friggin' insurance company ads that really wreck the mood/feel of the stations). I actually do tend to switch off the streaming player when an ad there starts. Methinks I'll switch to SomaFM instead, and yeah, I'll support them financially, even if doing so *won't* get rid of the occasional "support us" message. I respect them for not leaping to commercial advertisement.
Posted by Willfe
Jared -
For every person that complains, there are a hundred people browsing your tips and projects thinking "hey this stuff is really good!" but not being particularly vocal. Keep up the great work.
Posted by Balázs
This counts doubly true for Twitter at the moment. It's free and people love it, and they just keep complaining about the downtime.
Posted by Brad Wright
I think it all boils down to constructive criticism. I know there are developers out there who think they're gods, but most don't and really appreciate constructive criticism. Unfortunately, it's a lot easier to be mean-spirited or downright childish on the Internet than it is in the real world.
I guess, on the plus side, you can think of any complaints (that aren't just trolls) about your work as a sign that it matters to people and affects them. I'm really glad that someone stepped up and wrote a Python ActiveResource, and I hope you ignore any negative comments (even if for my own selfish needs :).
Side note:
I don't agree that this applies to Microsoft comment above. There are legitimate questions about the sincerity of any move Microsoft makes because their actual motives in the past have been negative, or contrary to the spirit of what they're providing.
Posted by Andrew