Hacker News Reader

good Lord, when did things get to be like this? if I shipped a free web framework with opt-out telemetry, I'd feel like a massive douche

View on HN

Opt-out telemetry in companies based on open source projects has become a critical component of YC applications, VC pitches, and acquisition pitches. If it was opt-in of course nobody would turn it on. It's shady but I also somewhat understand the founders who are doing product-led growth by giving out the product on GitHub/PyPI, yet still need some usage metrics to quantify the stickiness to their backers. Pip installs and git clones/forks are only a loose indicator of real usage.

How about tracking licenses or subscriptions sold and show that to investors?

How do you do that with an OSS project that's on GitHub?

by not trying to turn it into a VC fueled rent-seeking cash cow?

Fair enough.

By switching to a proprietary license for your proprietary product.

If we call things by their names, it's not surprising at all and actually makes solving the situation much easier.

if it's a paid product and it's part of an agreement for support then sure, but for a free product? when you know some high percentage of users are never going to even know that the option to opt out exists?

man... the modern YC/VC webdev game is rough.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com