The frequently asked question page on any web site is fairly important since you, hopefully, cut down on the confusion and other issues people could be having with you site and/or service.
Simple concept: I need an email address for a one time validation on some site I want to try and I don't want to give up my personal information.
Simple solution: www.mailinator.com
The FAQ they've done is really excellent. One selection:
So if the government issued a subpeona to Mailinator to divulge emails or logs, you'd rat me out?
Holy crap, yes. I'm not going to jail for you, I have a boyish face and very (very) supple skin.
That said, Mailinator keeps very little for any length of time. Mailinator can be a useful privacy tool.
Privacy is a serious issue, and we want to be clear. We think Mailinator can provide pretty decent privacy, and we want to keep providing that and even improve it, but we can't promise it. A promise like that would require lawyers, money, and probably guns - and since we provide Mailinator for free, we don't have any of those.
Brilliant. You can read it all here.
(Thanks, Matt!)
"Then you are a stupid-head. That isn't what this is for."
Refreshing ;) And how many times have you wanted to say that!
But if people were asking people to pay, could they get away with the same tone and build trust/confidence?
Posted by: Chris S | July 21, 2008 at 03:46
Chris S. -
Speaking only for myself -- yes, that sort of tone wouldn't be a put-off at all for me if I were paying for something. But I'd expect them to carry through on it when I wanted support in return for my money; I'd want them to be just as honest with me then.
My fear would be that that sort of corporate culture, when it collides with a sale or some other change of management away from the geek who started it, tends to go downhill very fast as the new management has no respect for (or understanding of) the culture they've inherited.
LiveJournal was a fair bit like this in the early days. And I gave them money then, as did enough other people that they became pretty profitable, and got bought out. And ... well, it's gone downhill steadily since then in user-interaction culture. Rick's comments about ads on his calendar in an adjacent post applies here too, and I really don't want ads in my personal webjournal, but they're encroaching like a herd of locusts let in by a management who appear to see users primarily as a revenue stream.
So, yeah. I'd pay them money, but I'd expect to be sad in a few years if they became successful at making money. (Or, if they didn't; there's no win either way.)
Posted by: Brooks Moses | July 25, 2008 at 16:28
I thought this site's FAQ is rather witty.
Take this for example.
Q: I've updated my transactions but my portfolio analysis doesn't seem to be updated yet?
A: Well, that's like impossible. Seriously impossible.
....
But perhaps, just maybe, the server get overwhelmed by your charismatic presence.
....
Full FAQ: http://www.stockalicious.com/forumtopic/24
ha. charismatic presence. That was so random.
Their About page - http://www.stockalicious.com/about/
is wacky but the best has got to be the owner's profile page - http://www.stockalicious.com/user/furious
I think he's joking but that's a hilarious profile.
Posted by: Brandon Fa | August 07, 2008 at 15:09