Received: by 10.224.189.16 with SMTP id dc16mr2210473qab.0.1354819776808; Thu, 06 Dec 2012 10:49:36 -0800 (PST) Received: by 10.182.245.50 with SMTP id xl18mr51765obc.2.1354819776653; Thu, 06 Dec 2012 10:49:36 -0800 (PST) Path: csiph.com!usenet.pasdenom.info!weretis.net!feeder4.news.weretis.net!feeder2.ecngs.de!ecngs!feeder.ecngs.de!xlned.com!feeder7.xlned.com!feeder1.cambriumusenet.nl!feed.tweaknews.nl!209.85.216.87.MISMATCH!c8no1655464qao.0!news-out.google.com!gf5ni47564750qab.0!nntp.google.com!c8no1687444qao.0!postnews.google.com!glegroupsg2000goo.googlegroups.com!not-for-mail Newsgroups: comp.lang.java.programmer Date: Thu, 6 Dec 2012 10:49:36 -0800 (PST) In-Reply-To: Complaints-To: groups-abuse@google.com Injection-Info: glegroupsg2000goo.googlegroups.com; posting-host=69.28.149.29; posting-account=CP-lKQoAAAAGtB5diOuGlDQk0jIwmH0T NNTP-Posting-Host: 69.28.149.29 References: User-Agent: G2/1.0 MIME-Version: 1.0 Message-ID: <32cd0890-c6fd-45d6-a8ca-8742e55db8e2@googlegroups.com> Subject: Re: Arranging free trials for online services. From: Lew Injection-Date: Thu, 06 Dec 2012 18:49:36 +0000 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1 Xref: csiph.com comp.lang.java.programmer:20135 Leif Roar Moldskred wrote: > Joshua Cranmer wrote: >> Send an email and require the user to reply to it. Email is a pretty >> good unique identifier (few people share email addresses nowadays), and >> some analysis on the replied email message can catch some people who are >> using multiple email addresses to try to subvert the free trial. > > The problem with that approach is services like Mailinator which make > it quick and easy (and free) to use throw-away e-mail addresses at the > drop of a hat. The goal isn't to eliminate all cheating. If your product is so all-fired valuable that someone so all-fired enthusiastic is going to the trouble to use throwaway email addresses just to avoid 55 cents a day, and it's going to cost you 56 cents a day in direct, indirect plus opportunity costs to chase such folks down, why bother? Take the 0.3% hit in sales you weren't going to get from such cheap-ass bastards anyway and let them be a free mouthpiece to their friends about how good your stuff is. Amortize that 55 cents across the thousands of people who love your product and are not sleazy little petty thieves. You don't need 100%. You only need X% where X is manageable and leaves you a profit in both cash and time, and is less than 100. -- Lew