Re: OT - Re: Pyramid, etc -- was: Re: [HOE] GURPS DEADLANDS DELAYED!

[Matt Crawford <matt@severian.chi.il.us>]

> > So an honest buck for an honest digital product is fine by me.  And
> > I dare you to draw a sensible line between sunscribing to an online
> > magazine and paying for downloadable files.
> 
> Easy - with one, I go to your site, look around for a bit and then buy 
> something.  A few minutes later, or a few days for a printed item, I get 
> what I ordered.
> 
> The other is that I have to pay money before I even get into your website.

Nope, that doesn't pass the reality test.  You're already "in" the
website (whatever that means) before you enter your payment or
evidence of previous payment (e.g., password).  The payment allows
you to access some additional links.  In one case their targets show
up on your screen directly, in the other case they are more commonly
saved to your disk.

But depending how you set your MIME type handlers and so on, you can
make both cases behave the same.

And in both cases, a good site will give you some information about
what you'll get if you pay.  That's just good business.


(There's an argument going on on SMOFS right now about the line
between a web-based magazine and some other sort of web site.  The
key distinction there seems to be content that changes en masse and
on schedule.)