Have You Noticed?

[wraggster]

First off a quick note about the issues with PS2Dev/Fluff over the selling of homebrew, first off i think its better that homebrew stay free but i can fully understand that the amount of work coders put in and the desire to get something back via donations etc.

anyway onto the reason why i posted this.

Theres a really disturbing amount of sites charging people (and yes you are getting took to the cleaners) for downloads, removal of ads and other reasons.

Some of these sites have just homebrew on their servers yet they are charging silly money for people to download off them.

Just remember that someone is making a lot of money off your membership and for what, the PSP scene is for free and totally free, dont be suckered into paying money to download, forum priveldges (cant spell ) or removal of ads.

Because at the end of the day they are just getting very rich off people who may not realise that its all for free.

Im not going to link to any of the sites but the list is a long one, the only way to stop them is to withdraw your cash from them and protest or boycott till they change.

[Martin]

It's silly indeed. Greed is what it is!

[babu]

wraggster: usually when it comes to opnions, we very rarely share any (iso,...). But i'am proud to say we finnaly found one ^_^. Making money like this is just wrong, lets hope they change their ways.

[PSP3D]

Nice one Wraggstar, my thoughts exactly.

[mog]

It's good that most homebrew is free...
But the way i see it, its a bit like real software companies... If people use their software without paying, they are less likely to bother making something better...
Maybe it would be better if some homebrew actually costed a small amount of money, then maybe they would be more serious about making their software better, instead of just getting bored and not updating.

If I had to pay to use mph's loader then it would be more likely that mph would try to fix them to actually work on 1.00 psps. Or if was paying for snes9x psp, then when I ask if it would be posible to fix the ff6 graphical glitches that came in with their new version, there would be a greater chance of it happening.

In a more ideal world, people would actually bother donating to coders that spent months of their free time developing stuff... but i dont think many people bother even giving a quick fiver over paypal for a piece of software they will use constantly for a few years.

[DraconumPB]

ok, take the example of sectionz.com...

it's a musician/producer site, letting people upload music for free and let other people download it as well as offer reviews. (much like uploading homebrew)

For a premium membership of $25 a year, artists get an email @sectionz.com, a special URL (their-name.sectionz.com), a flash player for the music, etc. and some other features like review replying and deleting and so forth. it doesn't cost anything to offer these features but they are incentive to support the community. It's run by one guy who is married with a kid and had to quit his job to support the site, and other than a small amount of ads (basically one banner-size google ad at the top of the site).

When the server was on the verge of dying, he had to ask for donations to be able to afford a new one... but still, with all this, he - by necessity - has to still do web design commissions on the side to support his family...

So, all I'm saying is this - Z, the owner, is making ad-money off the site, even though the content of the site is music that we upload and don't get paid for. In fact, many of us pay to be able to have extra features.... but still, we're just supporting the existance of the site. There's nothing wrong with it.

Now, that's ONE site. Some sites might be making a killing off it.. which would be a different story.

[pakkman781]

Yeah, It's pretty stupid...

Just comes to prove, that your site really is the best

[felonyr301]

some people charge like no tomorrow seriously and mog is right people tend to work harder for money than free even if its their passion ...

[quzar]

So ALL the ads on this site are absolutely necessary because if a single one was taken down someone would end up losing money by putting this site together?

[MaxSMoke]

I love this site, it's really great, but this news post comes off just a bit like the Pot calling the Kettle Black. After all, this website is supported pretty heavily by Lik Sang and HK Success, neither of which are very good companies and you are unabashedly positive about everything they sell. You mention nearly every PSP game they sell, and all of their accessories. And there's ads everywhere. Most of the products I've purchased from them have been sub-par at best and the shipping is outrageous. I know Hong Kong is along ways from the US, but there's no excuse for $30 shipping just to deliver a 2 ounce game. Nor is there any excuse in this day and age for any kind of shipping to take 5 weeks.

Of course, this website is still worlds better then sites that actually force people to pay for free news, that's just unforgivably greedy. That's truly a new low in exploitation on the part of other news websites. But that's kind like saying I'd rather be robbed, then be shot in the face and then robbed.

Sorry man, just giving you a little perspective.