March 19, 2001

1:49 PM

Fucked Company goes commercial.The free web site continues as is, but as "pud" points out, he's received over 40,000 "tips" and only posted 1,400 of them. Want to see them all? You can see all Comments for $25/mo and Comments + Rumors, unfiltered, for $75/mo. This kid is a genius. Get enough free, contributed content and collect enough archival info to be useful, THEN start charging for full access. Hey, wait a minute, you guys-n-gals running MeFi aren't thinking about....?
posted by JParker (18 comments total)

Per MONTH?!?

WTF is this guy thinking?
posted by Su at 3:59 PM on March 19, 2001

Fucked Company goes bankrupt, film at 11.
posted by tiaka at 4:01 PM on March 19, 2001

Synonymous with: "If a tree falls in the middle of a forest, and no one..." Ah...screw it.
posted by samsara at 4:23 PM on March 19, 2001

Yes, from the standpoint of MY wallet, I agree those prices are ridiculous. But what you need to understand is that the executive management at Yahoo, AOL, eBay et al are all over this site. As are their HR departments. As are their legal departments. If they go to the site and see that there are 42 Comments and 65 Rumors, and they can only see 5 of them on the free site, it is going to drive them insane. There is no way they WON'T buy a license or two. And given that Pud's been doing this for free, I predict his margins can only go up!
posted by JParker at 4:38 PM on March 19, 2001

I just hope he warns the people submitting rumors from their work addresses that other people will be reading their mail, not just him like it has been until now. I can see a lot of people getting fired over this.
posted by beefula at 5:10 PM on March 19, 2001

Who owns the rights to comments written by me by stored on somebody else's computer? Do I get a cut if my rumor is sold?
posted by daver at 5:49 PM on March 19, 2001

I think a lot of the comments will prove to be a waste of time reading. Pud picks comments to go on the front page because they're the ones worth reading.

I submitted a 'tip' on a company crash a few hours before it ended up on the front page.. but mine didn't end up on the front page, someone else's did.

I bet nearly all of the unpublished tips, rumors, etc.. are just duplicates of the ones which were published anyway, and I wish Pud great success in selling access to them.
posted by wackybrit at 6:01 PM on March 19, 2001

Hey, wait a minute, you guys-n-gals running MeFi aren't thinking about....?

Matt, is there something you're not telling us?
posted by anildash at 6:38 PM on March 19, 2001

(That was in regards to the "guys-n-gals" part.)
posted by anildash at 6:38 PM on March 19, 2001

Re anildash's comment: That's just my ignorance, Matt, and I offer apologies. I'm kinda new here, and I didn't know.... No questioning of your gender or sexual preferences was intended. If your web savvy and programming skills are any indication of your sexual talents, I'm sure you're hung like a stallion and your women appreciate it.
posted by JParker at 8:33 PM on March 19, 2001

And BTW beefula, Pud goes to great lengths on his site explaining that all identifiers are stripped off the comments; he doesn't even have logs on his servers. I don't know that I have enuf confidence in his assertions to risk my career on it, but he does at least address that risk.
posted by JParker at 8:37 PM on March 19, 2001

“I’m sure you’re hung like a stallion and your women appreciate it.”

Something for Matt to put on his resume. :P
posted by gleemax at 9:15 PM on March 19, 2001

How would they go bankrupt by starting something like this?
posted by thirdball at 9:19 PM on March 19, 2001

I think the point there was "FC shows its desperation", though I actually concur with Jparker and wackybrit's analyses.

Uh, anyway, though, JParker ... I'm not even sure if Mrs. Matt posts around these here parts ... but I'm pretty certain that an expert opinion on that particular matter will not be forthcoming.
posted by dhartung at 11:41 PM on March 19, 2001

One problem for Pud: Before, as a BBS, his liability concerning libel was somewhat limited. If he starts selling the content, he incurs additional responsibility to ensure its accuracy.
posted by darren at 5:37 AM on March 20, 2001

Apparently, it was just a joke. FC is now back to normal.
posted by Potsy at 5:57 AM on March 20, 2001

D'oh! I feel stupid. I thought that services stuff had replaced FC's the front page. Ignore what I just said.
posted by Potsy at 6:02 AM on March 20, 2001

Business 2.0 has a short article today about Philip Kaplan ("Pud") and his move to commercialize FuckedCompany.
posted by JParker at 8:43 AM on March 20, 2001