At least one news website threatened to shut my (expensive) paid account because I was using a "generic" email address, and as such, was likely sharing my credentials.
They insisted I change the email to [email protected], which was enough in their books to prevent credential sharing.
You should be able to block those elements with uBlockOrigin or similar browser extensions. I blocked a bunch of the "trending" stuff since it never really contributed positively to my site experience.
The other comments provided a great overview, but I would really recommend read ProPublica's reporting about them [1]
Some very brief highlights:
- They use dark patterns and other trickery to prevent people from filing for free (the vast majority of Americans can file for free via IRS free-file), instead directing them to the "free" up-sell laden product
- Lobbying against literally anything that would make filing taxes easier or cheaper. It doesn't have to be this way (and it's not in many countries), but it's how they make their money.
I don't know if this is a recent trend, or if I've only experienced negative things in the past year or two, (perhaps in the lead up to their IPO?), but I ended up switching away from them.
They closed my account because they suspected commercial use. If I wanted to re-open it, I would need to send in a picture of my ID, and sign some legal documents attesting to my continued non-commercial use or something.
They might not care about personal users because we don't pay, but I did end up switching to different software for the commercial projects I use remote access software on.
The whole presentation I was wondering how much Verizon paid as well.
Between the pricing reveal and the conflation of their 28GHz deployment as a standard 5G experience, it seemed like it was the iPhone sponsored by Verizon.
fwiw the Adobe Photography plan requires a 1-year commitment (paid monthly) and has an early termination fee if you do try to cancel, so it's not as straightforward.
Yes. I volunteered at an aquarium for several years, and we spent a surprising amount of time learning octopus etymology. It was a top 10 question for adults to ask.
That's correct. It's a very big difference if you think about it. Under the normal arrangement, a customer has to retain for 12 months before the 15% rate kicks in.
Depending on the product, you could be losing a significant portion of your customer base before then. For example Netflix, known for insanely good retention, loses nearly 40% of customers by month 12. [1]
They did, which was the shocking part! If you believe their claims about profit distributions (which you probably shouldn't), the total cost might even average less than $70/mo.
Funnily enough, I was doing research one day and came across a local ISP co-op in one of the Dakotas that was selling rural, symmetric 1/1 for $70 per month. Much better service at a lower cost than in SF (been trying to get ATT to finish their fiber install for the past 2 months).
Unfortunately I don't remember the name, but you could probably find it on one of the FCC maps.
They must massively oversubscribe their services, far beyond ISPs. The advertising probably brings in a lot of profitable users who aren't pushing tons of BitTorrent traffic as well. With the insanely high affiliate commission they're offering I can't think of another way.
I would add the standard caution when looking at averages, that symmetric 1/1 fiber may be pulling the upload value up significantly. Or that Speedtest users have higher internet speeds.
But I really want that stat to be true. The world of American ISPs is sad and depressing.
They insisted I change the email to [email protected], which was enough in their books to prevent credential sharing.