UAV Weather Forecast Site

ianwood · Nov 16, 2015

Thank you for the technology primer. That site could be run on Amazon for pennies. If the New York Times struggles with paid subscription models, good luck charging for something as ubiquitous as the air we breathe.

I like the idea of METARs and TAFs. The more people understand aviation the better. And it's local and updated frequently.

Mark The Droner · Nov 16, 2015

I remember when MCI mail charged me 50 cents to send an email. How'd that work out?

barefootbeachcombing · Nov 16, 2015

msinger said:
Are you referring to Stripe? They are no startup. Countless websites use Stripe to collect payments.

Yeah. They've been in business for only 4 years. There's not enough data yet for me to be comfortable with their security. That's just me.

Since it's a relatively new service, it might have been helpful for the UAVForecast site to adequately explain and give more reassurances regarding using Stripe rather than just blindly kicking users looking to sign up to Stripe which is likely mostly unknown to most people. But again, that's just me.

bbfpv · Nov 17, 2015

barefootbeachcombing said:
Yeah. They've been in business for only 4 years. There's not enough data yet for me to be comfortable with their security. That's just me.

Since it's a relatively new service, it might have been helpful for the UAVForecast site to adequately explain and give more reassurances regarding using Stripe rather than just blindly kicking users looking to sign up to Stripe which is likely mostly unknown to most people. But again, that's just me.

Maybe try PM'ing @CloudsNeverDie. Maybe you two can work something out.

Shammyh · Nov 17, 2015

barefootbeachcombing said:
Yeah. They've been in business for only 4 years. There's not enough data yet for me to be comfortable with their security. That's just me.

Since it's a relatively new service, it might have been helpful for the UAVForecast site to adequately explain and give more reassurances regarding using Stripe rather than just blindly kicking users looking to sign up to Stripe which is likely mostly unknown to most people. But again, that's just me.

Stripe is pretty well known and well regarded in the credit card processing community, just FYI.

I personally don't think he should be charging for UAV forecast... But Stripe is perfectly safe/secure, at least as these things go.

transmetaman · Nov 17, 2015

We live in a world where we want everything for free....who cares if the artist worked hard to produce that song and he or she is struggling to make ends meet, who cares if the developer spent hours developing a program while just getting by on living expenses...we should get it all for free. We want more keep it coming cause FREE is best.

Shammyh · Nov 17, 2015

transmetaman said:
We live in a world where we want everything for free....who cares if the artist worked hard to produce that song and he or she is struggling to make ends meet, who cares if the developer spent hours developing a program while just getting by on living expenses...we should get it all for free. We want more keep it coming cause FREE is best.

This is fairly OT... but I'll bite.

No one is EVER obligated to pay for something. If you don't like someone's music, don't buy it. If don't like someone's app, don't buy it.

If you think that UAV Forecasts isn't worth the money (which personally, I do), then don't pay for it.

If you spend your hard time and effort to create an app no one wants... well, that's your own fault. And has nothing to do with expectations of free software.
If I can get the same information from one of the numerous free weather services, why would I pay for UAVForecast? That's just a bad business model.

If you want people's money, you better give them something of value in return. Business 101.

~~~

I believe the real argument you're no so subtly alluding to has more to do with PIRATED software/apps/music/etc than anything we've discussed here.
And a lot of the effect of technology you may have witnessed in the film/music space has more to do with massive corporations losing their monopolies, than with the piracy of intellectual property.

If you wanna discuss the merits of piracy/corporate interests, I'm glad to take it up in PM.

Finally, the fact remains, free open source software (which has nothing to do with piracy) works quite well in many domains.
e.g. Android. The single most popular operating system on planet earth. Android is Free and Open Source.

Just because YOU have some expectations of what things *should* cost, does not mean that others share your beliefs.
There would be no Internet were it not for people contributing their hard-work, passion, and code, for often little to no monetary compensation.

~~~

Anyone on this site (Phantom Pilots) who contributes their time, energy, or resources to helping others is doing so for FREE.

Why do people do it? Is it because they expect to be paid? If they're not paid, why do they waste their time?

Or perhaps, it's because through a community, where we all pool resources, and everyone contributes something, we ALL end up better than we started off.