This column is about TANSTAAFL, which is a term from a book by Robert A. Heinlein (one of the best Science Fiction authors that ever lived) called "The Moon Is A Harsh Mistress". The term means "There Ain't No Such Thing As A Free Lunch". This concept is the basis of the plot of the book, which is about a Lunar penal colony and it's attempt to free itself from Earth domination.
In my mind, Tribe has by far the best implementation and feature set of all of the social networking sites I've worked with. It is far more usable than MySpace (Ugh!) and I prefer the layout of Tribe over FaceBook by far. All things being equal, I would happily post away on Tribe forever.
Unfortunately, as I am positive everyone on Tribe understands, the social networking system has been grossly unstable for a long time (exceeding a year). I've seen downtime that stretches for days on end, I've lost data, and I've had many friends mysteriously disappear after some database restore.
But that's to be expected, right? I mean, after all, it's FREE isn't it?
I hate to throw water on some people's parades, but Tribe is most certainly not free by any means; not for anyone regardless of whether or not they are a premium member or unpaid member. Allow me to explain before you haul off and flame me.
You see, there is a three-way relationship on all social networking sites.
What you and I, the end users, pay is with our time and our content. We happily post dozens, hundreds even thousands of blog entries. We write articles, add comments, upload images (and in some social networks videos), define events and create groups to bring people with similar interests together. It's actually an incredible way to keep in contact with your friends (and others), and it is rapidly changing the way the world works. I mean, a few years ago, who would have thought something called a "Flashcrowd" would exist?
All of these postings are on web pages which show advertisements (unless, in some social networks, you've bypassed that by paying premium prices). The way most modern advertising networks work (such as Google Adsense) is they examine the page and determine, based upon the content, what ads to run. In theory, for example, if you had a page about clothes, then Google would display ads related to clothes. The theory is that if someone is reading about clothes and you show an ad about clothes, they are more likely to click on the ad (and presumably purchase the product, although I've always thought that connection is not as clear-cut as some people think).
The social network makes money directly from these advertisements. Thus, the more contents the users (you and I) create, the more money the social network makes.
The point of all this is you really are paying for the service. You are paying with your time and your content. As a web designer, I charge anywhere from $50 to $150 an hour, depending upon the size of the job. Even if you take the low end, considering I've spent several hundred hours updating tribe with content, I paid, indirectly as a barter, thousands of dollars [of time] to directly to tribe.
In my humble opinion, the effort we users, you and I and everyone else, puts in to add new, fresh, money-making content, demands that we receive premium service. It demands stability, it demands the system be available, and it demands that no content is ever lost.
And before you flame me that I don't understand or that I'm being too harsh or that I'm ignorant ---
I do this kind of thing for a living. I am the IT director for a major, multi-billion dollar retailer, I've been a vice president of a company twice and I've done consulting work for hundreds of other companies. I done everything from designing operating systems to writing the water control system for Las Vegas Valley and New Haven Connecticut to designing the actual cluster software in an operating system to doing disaster recovery (after the disaster) for several major companies. I'm certified a dozen times and I manage a gaggle of computer geeks. I sell on the internet and actually make money, and yes, I really do understand how this all works at all levels.
My SLA (service level agreement) demands 24x7 up-time, and my systems cannot be down (unplanned) for more than an hour, no more than 4 times per year. That is, by the way, even if there is a 7.8 earthquake. Even if our primary datacenter is leveled, I am required to be able to bring it all up on the disaster recovery site, at least the critical systems, in an hour or less.
In summary, I do not accept the excuses and the "oh, it's free so why are you complaining" comments.
It's not free by any means. In fact, it is extraordinarily expensive. And we deserve the absolute best, because we enable these social networks to make money and stay in business.
Period.
Unless otherwise noted, all photos and text is Copyright © Richard G Lowe, Jr.