It's because nobody really thinks about it until the last minute. That's kind of as it should be, since there are usually more important things to worry about. I think the "back in a jiffy" pages are fine, but if you want something a little friendlier, that's where Wrenchmode fits in.
I agree in a practical sense. I doubt Mailchimp has a problem with the case I've described.
I just think the wording of their AUP is too vague. If taken at face value, it invalidates a lot of legitimate use cases. That just means all their customers have to bend that rule a bit, and nobody knows just how far they can bend it. It's a shitty place to be as a customer.
For the people debating the "If it's bulk email, why not just use Mailchimp?" question, consider the Trello use case: Someone updates a ticket and there are 4 people subscribed for notifications. In that case, it sends the same email to 4 people.
According to the AUP, it's against the rules to send "emails directed to a number of individuals with the same content"
Are we really going to say that someone like Trello should be using Mailchimp for that?
I'd recommend not worrying about it. You can't plan for everything and the time you spend being redundant for this (very unlikely) case is probably better spent somewhere else.
Send an email to one user asking for feedback and you will get a much better ROI than trying to plan for TLD failure.
I’ve lost friends because they thought I was crazy to try to build my own company.
Huh? What kind of friend tosses you aside because you decide to start a company? That makes absolutely no sense. I'm trying to imagine this conversation:
You: I'm starting my own company!
Friend: I think that's a crazy idea. You'll probably fail.
You: I'm confident I can do it.
Friend: I disagree, and we're not friends any more.
If anything, friends usually way underestimate the difficulty of running a business and just throw platitudes at you like, "Do it! Follow your dreams! With passion you can't fail!"
I'd love to see the CPM they get that beats $24/yr from an infrequent user like me. I use it as a storage site and visit it extremely rarely. Maybe I'm an outlier.
They ship the t-shirts directly to my backers. That's a huge weight off my shoulders and lets me focus on writing the code instead of stuffing envelopes.
Including SnapChat in here is interesting. I would consider it a perfect example of the novel interface and interaction being discussed, but it's also a perfect example of the potential for flash-in-the-pan.
SnapChat is exciting now, but will it still be interesting in a year? Or will there be a new novel interaction that everyone flocks to? Somehow Instagram and Pinterest have stayed relevant, but I think the article glosses over how hard it is to create something novel...and then not be discarded after the novelty wears off.
Exactly. Mailchimp has a very specific userbase, probably much closer to Basecamp than Facebook. If you're in that camp (serving ads, tracking biz finances, time tracking for freelancers, etc.) then Facebook/Twitter login may send the wrong message, that you're fluff. But, if you are fluff (music sharing, video game discussion, daily joke email) then social login could be very compelling to your potential users.
My point is that the OP is looking for examples of real businesses telling real stories. In the story I linked, PoF is selling the same old "I fell out of bed into a pile of money" tale.
A few choice quotes from the first few paragraphs:
He developed software for his online dating site, Plenty of Fish, that operates almost completely on autopilot, leaving Mr. Frind plenty of free time. On average, he puts in about a 10-hour workweek.
Mr. Frind built the Plenty of Fish Web site in 2003 as nothing more than an exercise to help teach himself a new programming language, ASP.NET.
No mention of long hours promoting, begging users to sign up, tracking down weird bugs, or all the actual work that goes into building a business. Just a quick rundown of how easy it is to whip up a shitty website and become a millionaire overnight.
Plenty of Fish is one of the worst offenders of what the OP is calling business porn. They've been pushing the "overnight success with zero effort" story for a long time.
Imagine two people working hard, doing their best. Imagine their boss, also working hard, too busy to stop and think about the future. One day, one of the workers asks the boss for a raise and a promotion. The other worker just assumes his hard work will be noticed and rewarded.
Who do you think gets the raise? The boss makes the easy decision and goes with the person who asked for it.
I've seen it happen time and again. You can either cry that the world is unfair, or just be the person who asks for what you want.
I'm going to guess that KS will be sending a C&D. It's a cute site, and I like the idea, but the style is way too close to KS. They have to be concerned about people stumbling onto this and not getting the joke.
On the other hand, if it gets popular to the point that KS sends a C&D, then the site probably served its purpose. Overall, a neat marketing idea.
A bit of a fluff piece just promoting Gaglers, but the underlying assertion is worth thinking about. A per-seat license model has definitely pushed me away from certain products, while a pure usage model is much more appealing to me.