steve

> Engagement is inversely correlated with CTRs

Which is exactly why more CPA ad systems are needed. That's the best way I see to allow everyone to get their interests in line.

You could burn yourself out much faster with a $0 salary over a number of years though.

The risk is higher for younger people.. and yet so many more younger people are successful? Hm.

and by salary you mean - no family/spouse to support.

Decisions...

I disagree. The usage was very different.

Oh, and I upvoted you by accident. Damn.

> Most of Myspace's user base (and thus value) was added since the acquisition.

Nah, the hot young promiscuous girls were there from early on.

Senior project, of course.

Most all of the undergraduate courses focused on analysis. I hated that! Let me design stuff already!

Yeah, had girlfriend cook before... but that will never be "for free".

Before that, mom. Now, pre-cooked chicken from the microwave. And beer. Too much beer.

Depends. Does it serve alcohol?

Think of it this way: you don't have nearly as much to lose as you once thought. On the other hand, you'd better start living a good life now, because while you're alive is all you've got.

Better to live a day as a lion... you know the rest.

Maybe I'm not old enough, maybe it's because I don't have a family, but I'd rather do something few others have done than just lay around with my family until they send me off to the retirement home.

So, I disagree with your position 100%.

Anyone have a link to video of the guy who rides on top of the high speed train shortly before he dies of cancer?

It's bad because those people ONLY plan to work hard, but not work SMART.

It isn't just about building to flipping. They would never start a business at all. There is much more honor in pushing papers around and accomplishing nothing at some huge company than ever actually doing the most you can do.

credit card verification?

Sounds like a porn site. That's a terribly unmarketable idea.

Unless valleywag changed their post, I see nothing wrong with what they posted there. In fact, the above reply is more inflammatory.

That said, the reversal to a payed model seems fine to me. It even sets a good example for the rest of us who have sites where payed is the way to go for them.

No no no.

Fake profiles are still a huge problem. Facebook handled it early on by severely limiting their audience but that solution simply would not work for hotornot.

You tell me how to effectively solve this without driving your users away... I found some decent solutions but it's not nearly as easy as stopping spam.

brand dilution.

How is that not exactly what I said?

Your blog is very optimistic. You'll need that:)

This is an interesting topic. I'm always trying to learn more about what other people do for publicity. I get really tired of all the bs stories with the founders who claim that they just told some friends and then woke up with ten million users the next day.

news.yc is a "social networking" site...

I'd try to lose that buzzword, but the concept of making sites that users can communicate over is still pretty solid.

I don't know, I start to change for the worse when I isolate myself from all people while programming for a very long time. Good thing we have the internet these days.

Interesting, but this is just stupid:

> Here's a tip. If you want to make money, why not offer something of real value to your visitors like a product or service. Provide content that is so good that people will want to pay for it. That's called doing good business.

If sites supported entirely by advertising had no "real value" then people probably wouldn't be using them so much... The commenter has no clue about internet "business."

> Begging people to look at your ads for junk they neither want or need is nothing but ad welfare.

And this is exactly the FAULT of google. It is incredibly counter-productive that publishers cannot directly support the advertised products as is the case with CPC advertising.

"There are strict taboos against money that isn't earned with sweat from the brow"

A relative of mine grew up with many orientals and she too holds this attitude. It seems very strange to me but now at least I know where it came from.

make the message font bigger.

not a bad idea.

Inflammatory article that makes many misleading statements.

downvoted. twice.

No one is arguing that the bell curves don't overlap.

1. Yes

2. Adversely.

3. Balance? What balance? Well mine is in another country until winter. This wasn't exactly by choice though, so the decision itself was easy.

Good luck, and don't do the relationship unless you absolutely have to do it - my advice:)

If only I could get users to get out their CC's in the first place.

Parent speaks the truth. Sadly, I don't think this girl will ever escape my dreams.

I don't know what numbers they had bothered to graph up but it seems to me that the evidence of traction was very strong from very early on.