
Tarsnap pricing change - cperciva
http://www.daemonology.net/blog/2018-04-01-tarsnap-pricing-change.html
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Panino
> so making this change on the Tarsnap website brings it in line with the
> reality of the billing system

Seems hard to argue against this.

> The topic of picodollars has become something of an ongoing debate between
> us, with Patrick insisting that they communicate a fundamental lack of
> seriousness and sabotage Tarsnap's success as a business, and me insisting
> that using they communicate exactly what I want to communicate, and attract
> precisely the customer base I want to have.

This is the most important line from the post IMO. (Small typo btw.)

I admire and am envious of Colin. He's making a good living doing something he
likes that he built himself, selling a service that has real value, and
without sacrificing his integrity in some way.

I think wealth can be a sort of drug where people want more and more and will
do anything to get it -- whether it's selling user data, manipulating people
with dopamine rushes, lying, making money off of nazis, or whatever. It
doesn't have to be that way.

~~~
cperciva
_without sacrificing his integrity_

Just to be clear, I don't think that pricing Tarsnap in picodollars is a
matter of _integrity_. Nobody would suffer if I got rid of picodollars.

It's one part whimsy and about nine parts branding. Just like how Stripe
launched with a curl command line _on the front page of their website_ , the
presence of the word "picodollars" is a shibboleth which says "we're geeks,
just like you".

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madsushi
This is exactly the right mix of nerdy and petty, hard to guess if it's just
an April Fools' or not.

~~~
cperciva
It makes me sad that you think I'm petty.

~~~
madsushi
Sorry, that's probably the wrong word for it. I meant the vibe of "Patrick
really wanted me to change this, so I did, but not quite how he had
envisioned".

~~~
cperciva
Maybe you're looking for the word "trolling"? I mean, that's kind of the
essence of April Fool's jokes.

~~~
mercer
Gentle ribbing is how I'd put it.

I'm a very happy customer, btw. Thanks for your work!

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barry-cotter
Wait, was there a $/gigabyte day pricing thing before? Because if it was
quoted solely in picodollars per byte before non technical people who weren’t
willing to google would have no idea. With the change whimsy is preserved and
legibility increased. Normal consumers know gigabyte and day.

~~~
cperciva
_Wait, was there a $ /gigabyte day pricing thing before?_

I can't remember if it was there at the very beginning; but the $/GB
translation has been there for years.

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ggm
Since the per byte cost is below my rounding threshold and looks like either
zero or maxint, I suggest we simplify the model and charge every user the rand
(0, 1) throw of zero or maxint dollars irrespective of how much data they
store.

