> No one even considering factoring the cost of the developers, the hours put in by admin, the value of the work done by moderators. Nothing, the only thing that has an actual price is the stupid VPS, so this is all that they think should be chipping in for.
This is why I make it a point to pay for software that I find useful/enjoyable.
One of the most obnoxious side-effects of the VC startup mill's use of "free" services to fuel growth (loss leaders) is that they tricked people into thinking that software was cheap or free to produce.
Now people feel entitled to your efforts for as little as possible and, in some cases, get absolutely indignant that you'd ever try to run a real business and profit from your efforts.
For that reason it's why I try to keep all stacks as ruthlessly simple as possible, because the complexity will come from the market and flexibility will be invaluable then.
Premature over-engineering, or optimization costs a lot more developers, administration and hardware.
At times it reminds me of when someone is using AI to do sometimes a SQL query might be able to.
So much effort avoiding SQL, to the point of using non-relational databases... only to relate them.
This is why I make it a point to pay for software that I find useful/enjoyable.
One of the most obnoxious side-effects of the VC startup mill's use of "free" services to fuel growth (loss leaders) is that they tricked people into thinking that software was cheap or free to produce.
Now people feel entitled to your efforts for as little as possible and, in some cases, get absolutely indignant that you'd ever try to run a real business and profit from your efforts.