skysight-inc/HackerNews huggingface dataset:
* The VIP membership program information is not part of the eye flow from the checkout info to the nice big bright attention grabbing checkout button.

* Nor does it immediately stand-out as "This is something you REALLY need to read" rather than just normal advertising for an opt-in premium package,

* There is no "I have read and accepted the VIP stuff" checkbox in the checkout flow. User has to specifically opt-out by clicking a link no-where near the standard user flow.

So, not fraudulent technically but this seems like a clear case of a "Dark Pattern" and seems pretty scammy to me.

>It's in plain English, and in the same font size as everything else on the page.

The actual text saying "With this purchase you are activating your VIP membership program" is clearly smaller than the main text in the checkout (product name, prices etc).

> and the information is quite clear on the site.

Your opinion, I have to disagree.

[Edit] having seen the old page linked to by another user http://i.imgur.com/3di93.png is it pretty clear that the new page is much more deceptive (Old one had a checkbox requiring acceptance of VIP membership)

[Edit] Expanded opinion.
Tragedy of the commons can be viewed as a specific form of the prisoner's dilemma.
I tried to buy it but it didn't look like you could preorder an e-book
If I'm a US citizen, but spend my whole life working in another country, should I be entitled to draw social security checks from the US?

You are NOT entitled and you will NOT draw jack from Social Security--unless you paid in for at least 10 years. Then, that is your money.

If you move to US and are dirt poor, I suppose you may get some state aid, medicaid etc but that's a basic right to anyone that lives there. It probably balances out as many will retire, say to Mexico, and not use those services.
“Breaking Bad” is also a first-rate primer on business
I wanted to, several years ago (between 2002-2004, in a commercial project, embedded setting). It was quite good on paper, with a simplified specification (compared to Common Lisp, which is huge) and several nice additions. I liked the simple object system.

The problem was with the implementations — too few, too buggy, too few people using it.

These days I would not bother with it, given that we have Clojure and its approach to concurrency. In really small embedded environments I'd go with something smaller than ISLisp, with an implementation that is easier to understand and possibly fix if there is a problem.
You've posted this comment three times, and I won't reply on every thread, but let's be clear: these "review" sites are shady operations that extort retailers by aggregating negative reviews and charging to hide them.

Amazon's review is worse than JustFab's on the same site:
http://www.consumeraffairs.com/online/amazon.html

You can Google a lot of e-commerce sites with the word "fraud" or "scam" and find a lot of negative stuff. This is the internet.

I don't dispute the fact that there are probably several hundred unhappy customers, as reported the site will do >$100M in revenue and everything costs $40 or less, with 2.5MM+ transactions, it's inevitable, but it's not indicative of a problem.
See this is what I don't understand. Facta does not change tax law. It should have no bearing on the cost of having your taxes done. You already had to declare foreign bank accounts to the IRS, so really all the law is doing is getting them declared automatically. Now fewer tax lawyers certainly will raise costs, but that has nothing to do with Facta.
Generally when I see a list of items I am purchasing, a "continue to checkout" button, and a right sidebar that covers the full height of the checkout area, the right sidebar does not contain additional services that I am purchasing. I would, in fact, expect services that I am purchasing to appear in the same list as the items that I am purchasing! In this instance I looked at the right sidebar only because I was looking for the "obvious" indication of the subscription, and even then I had trouble finding the bit that told me that purchasing a single pair of boots would cause me to be signed up, because it is in a sub-header in one of the lowest-contrast parts of the sidebar.
Ah, I still remembered your old post.

To me, trying to mislead people (on purpose) is equivalent to scamming. the purpose is the same, just a different method of doing thing.
I also remember the post that originated imgur... because I was addicted to reddit back then. The founder called imgur a "gift to reddit"...
http://www.reddit.com/r/reddit.com/comments/7zlyd/my_gift_to...

Like most redditors I was shocked when I couldn't use my karma to buy stake in imgur. After becoming depressed that imgur was not really a "gift", I quit reddit, and decided to found a startup. And now I'm here. So thank you for that imgur.
Ok, it's not illegal as I look at it. But it still feels like shady business. People tend to focus on the checkout button and don't realy see the VIP-announcement because it looks like a kind of advertisment. People are therefore (at least in my opinion) tricked into a subscription. It's not a way of doing business I like.
Actually, according to the article, foreign banks and financial institutions are now avoiding US citizens as customers because of the complications it introduces. So if you have a US citizenship, banks abroad won't deal with you.
Something that does more than one thing, and does more than one thing "well." Not a niche app, which have their place. It's often an ecosystem; other apps or websites have instructions telling you to install another app first.
I'm sorry, but yes, that's a very tricky site.

There are about a bajillion ways to make it much more clear what you're actually paying for. Not even complicated, "Well we need to hire a UX designer and do some study" type stuff. Just straight-forward, common sense things like adding the price of the membership as a line item.

So, yes, you've invested in a company which is actively hostile to its customers.
A simultaneous OS X binary, PDF file, jar file, and HTML page
yes. When I put my credit card in to an online site I say. "Do I trust these people not to steal my identity, to not over charge me, to send me what I ordered?" and only if all the answers are yes to I push "submit".

That's why I still have a roof over my head and money in my bank account, and there isn't some Nigerian Prince with a Mercedes purchased with my money.
The previous one seems less deceptive - it makes the user check a box that mentions the VIP program.
Jobs' original iPhone keynote used to invalidate Apple patent in Germany
It's difficult to have a conversation with someone using their own terms for well-established concepts.

If I understand you correctly, what you're calling "geometric polymorphism" is usually called structural typing or subtyping, and what you're calling "generic polymorphism" is usually called duck typing.

Duck typing isn't amenable to static typechecking, so it's not comparable to Haskell's typeclasses.
If your business depends on people not reading things, then yes, your business is a scam.

And generally speaking, things which "feel scuzzy", are.
Apparently the push of the "Why" feature broke something It will be back tomorrow. Sorry about that.
I would click the button and continue on that page. It's clearly deceptive, and certainly I do not get the impression that I would be signing up to a monthly fee - just a one-off.

The eye is focussed on the "continue checkout" button and the information directly above it. The customer is urged to think about shipping options, not VIP membership.

Don't believe it's deceptive? Why not put a giant "VIP a monthly fee" line just above the Continue Checkout button, and see the change in sign-ups.
How much is considered lawful? 30%? 50%? 90%?

It would be lawful if I agreed to all of it. I do agree we need taxes, but in many cases, it's excessive and against my will (you can go to jail if you don't pay it).

The other problem is that there is no accountability.
I live abroad, and US tax laws cause me huge problems...especially since the tax treaty with China is incompletely in a couple of places (e.g. if I go to the US on a biz trip). Let me educate you a bit:

> In some cases, compliance with US tax laws (even though not in the US) are in direct conflict with laws in jurisdictions where people actually reside.

This is why countries have tax treaties, to work these issues out (though there are some bugs, see above). If you don't earn that much, the ~$95k foreign income tax exemption is also very useful.

> In essence, a US citizen is indentured to the US state regardless of where they live.

Thankfully, I'm mostly an indentured servant to the CCP and every year I get to write a big fat +/- $0 on my US tax returns. But I'm just a worker bee.

> It is creating a growing amount of complications for US citizens that are not within US jurisdiction but which can be held criminally liable for not following US laws even when those laws are in conflict with local laws where they actually live.

What are you talking about? The only law I can think of: US citizens are not allowed to participate in corruption (by US law), while some countries require bribes to avoid sending you to jail. Very few laws affect us abroad, the only other ones I can think of relate to child rape and pornagraphy.
Samsung is not pretty good regarding community support, here's an in depth story from a former CyanogenMod maintainer for Samsung's Exynos4 based devices (S2/S3/Note/Note2/etc) [1].

For example, emergency calling functionality was broken for a long time and has been reverse engineered only recently [2].

[1] https://plus.google.com/101093310520661581786/posts/aoAGK5yo...
[2] http://www.androidcentral.com/cyanogenmod-fixes-emergency-ca...
Which is where things like figshare [0] work well. You can publish datasets/figures and you get a citable DOI for free. I published code there that my wife cited in her PhD, without having to do the usual computer science thing of writing a paper about it and having people cite that.

Disclaimer: I work for a partner company.

[0] http://figshare.com/
I don't accept the word "misleading" -- I do not believe the page in any way misleads. It does not try to position it as anything other than a subscription, and the language is plain english.

Could they put the subscription details in bold? Could they use a larger font than all the other text? Sure. It's a tradeoff, for sure, and every retailer has to optimize their site to perform. Could they pop up three boxes after you click yes and say, "Are you sure?" "Are you really, really sure?" -- (yes, I know I'm being ridiculous) -- but yes, it is a tradeoff.

But with an NPS score in the 50's, nearing a million subscribers with very low churn rates -- happy users -- as investors we feel the business is healthy and being managed in an upfront way.

But, I can see how one might feel they would like it bolder or more prominent -- reasonable people could disagree on that.

I would submit that, when you come to view the site under the lens of clicking on a discussion about a fraud, and then go to it to decide if it is a fraud, and you (probably) aren't a likely customer and don't think "damn, that's a hot pair of boots for $40", you end up with a different lens.
I find this incredibly misleading. Absolutely no where on the home page is there any hint or mention of a subscription service. The user finds a pair of boots, decides to buy them and enters what appears to be a standard checkout process.

In the screenshot you uploaded, is a standard checkout screen you would see on any e-commerce site. The only difference is there is what appears to be an ad/upsell to some VIP program that I'm sure no one pays attention to.

I've done a lot of work in product & usability in the shopping/e-commerce space and in my opinion, this flow is intentionally misleading.
Should be working now.

http://time.com.samuru.com/?q=test

http://wired.com.samuru.com/?q=test
I was with you up until the screenshot - that's a completely disingenuous way to present some pretty vital information. It's a textbook example of a dark pattern[1].

[1] http://darkpatterns.org/
My ISP insists that I must allow them to steal my money on monthly basis or they would cut my Internet!

Taxes are not theft, but a membership fee. Its perks are roads, fire department, schools, laws and law enforcement, protection from foreign armies and basically keeping the society together.
FIFA could tell Qatar that they're not getting the World Cup unless they clean up their act.

On a wider note, Western countries could refuse to do business with companies and countries involved in serious human rights violations.
I looked at your image, and I think it's really unfortunate that they aren't upfront about what's going on.

You have to read all the way through to the last sentence at the bottom of the page, and then think back through what you've already read to piece together what you're signing up for.

They could have just said, "If you join our VIP program, you get to order one item from each month's showcase at no charge, for a $39.95 monthly membership fee. If you don't see anything in the showcase that you like, you have until the 5th of the month to opt out and we'll waive the fee for that month."

So yeah, it's not as bad as what the OP said, but it's still pretty bad.

Speculation: Women join the site based on word-of-mouth from other women, who tell them how it works. So that's why they aren't fooled. Women who aren't told beforehand how it works are probably like "WTF?" when they see it and are turned off by it, and some % of those are just going to click through, trusting that whatever that promotion is, surely this company is trustworthy and not trying to rip them off.
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That's true, but that doesn't mean that JustFab's businessmethods are not a scam. See the discussion above about not including the Vip-membership in the checkout-flow.
I think it would be better if it was HTML in the page, github might be down, or you could use it offline (like travelling in a plane, coding).
That's more about personal connections than the quality of life of a region, right? Granted, geographically if you happen to know those people it makes it hard to connect with them, but most people can't just ring up Guido when they have a Python question.

As far as Phoenix-based Python developers, there appears to be a Python meetup group, 'DesertPy': http://www.meetup.com/Phoenix-Python-Meetup-Group/

As far as real estate... I don't know about your specific situation but as a whole the valley is much more expensive than the Phoenix area. San Jose, through Cupertino, up to Mountain View... on average you're easily paying twice as much for the same square footage (I just checked San Jose on Zillow. 2,000 sq ft is easily 600k).
"With this purchase, you will be activating your VIP membership" is in the sidebar. It's at body-copy writing, and you have to go looking for it.

This is a combined "Forced Continuity" and "Sneak into Basket" set of dark patterns that doesn't even given you the in-line checkbox to uncheck:

* http://darkpatterns.org/library/sneak_into_basket/

* http://darkpatterns.org/library/forced_continuity/
Screw you and your rationalization to mislead the users; thousands of studies show that the button people clicks is the big one: Like 95%; and in this case is "continue checkout" so you can save all your crap for the jury.
I actually clearly remember that - and at least they did send me something every month - reminding that my card is getting charged.
And yes, it still felt scammy and I was glad to unsubscribe as soon as possible.
Here - this is definitely anti-pattern designed to hide the fact that you are not really buying an item, but instead subscribing to something that will charge you monthly with nothing in return...
Hacker sold personal data of 4 million US citizens online
Note that you often don't get double taxed. They just want the difference between what you would pay in the USA vs. what you actually pay in country B, after $97k that is. If you are in a country with higher taxes than the states, which is most of the world actually, you won't be paying anything more (just watch out for HK, Singapore, and Switzerland).
Thank you for this.

I was going to say OP's (your) girlfriend went through this 8 months ago, which probably meant a completely different looking checkout page. We all know startups are constantly trying different things in their UI to increase conversion.
In the same ways, it's a shame that Paste/Copy/Cut does not have their own key.

Note that you can disable the Caps Lock key in windows somewhere with RegEdit.
America’s dominance of the global helium market is ending
It had previously been held as a competition between nations and with some level of integrity. This Oracle campaign and the previous Alinghi campaign have been the most self-serving in the America's Cup 150 years of history.

Money has been a part of the cup, sure, but making it so you can't win without dropping half a billion is a new low.
Social Security is not a savings account. Even if you paid in for 10 years, you can easily draw more than you put in.
If you are living in the USA, you are probably paying far fewer taxes (income and consumption) than people living anywhere else in the developed world, as well as much of the developing world.

I'm assuming you live in China though, since you said there is no accountability, and you can't vote out public officials whose tax policies you don't like.
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Couldn't care less

Could care less means they care some, and theoretically could care less than they already care. Couldn't care less means they already don't care at all.
Thanks. For me - they are and were good enough. In particular you can get your shoes for past credits. This is far from scam.
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launder all the moneys!

just kiddin.
Yeah, but failure to pay your taxes leads to servitude and slavery in prisons. It's just one step before.
As a former middle school teacher who taught in two very different schools: it depends a lot on the parents and location. One school I was at was nothing like this, the other just like this.
Well, kinda but not quite.

There's no indication that they'll automatically send you the month's featured item or even email you about what it is and that you're about to pay for it.

Rather, they're silently selling you "Credits" expecting you to forget all about it until you happen to study your credit card report some month in the future.

Maybe not illegal, but definitely shady.
Consider the taxes (after the very generous $90+k exemption) a fee for services offered to expatriates. You may never use such services, but your fee pays to make those services available if you ever need them.

The U.S. Embassy system offers world-class services to U.S. citizens with legal, medical, and (depending on the circumstances) financial problems in foreign countries. They will negotiate your release if you are arrested for foreign crimes. They will work with your health provider if you become gravely sick. They will help you reorder credit cards if you are robbed and even provide you with cash advances or a place to stay.
A prime example of a scam, that you can get away with in court because just like fine print in contracts, it was actually stated.

See, there is the action (the orange checkout button) on the left box. Right below it are the shipping options. And then there's the VIP sidebar. It's "action" isn't in any discernable way a "button", it's a small red link. It's designed to be non recognizable as an "action" that is an alternative to the big orange action, and unless you actually read the sidebar, you won't know that the sidebar is also a checkout option display. Sidebars, for the most part, are not known to consumers to contain relevant information, because everybody stuffs sidebars with advertising.
"The company's business model and credit card practices have been criticized as deceptive. In October 2011 a national class action lawsuit was filed against Just Fabulous, Inc."

- Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/JustFab
You want to know how to make it crystal-clear what the buyer is opting-into? Add the VIP membership as a line-item in their cart with an explanation of what it is underneath that item.

I bet they'll never ever do that.
It is. No matter how you'd like to see it. The State has no legitimacy over your life and your earnings. It did not do anything to deserve it.

This misconception comes from "Monarchy by Divine Right" from Old Europe, where it was your duty before God to support your King with your earnings.

It has become more and more of an extortion as the amount seized by your rulers far exceeds (in percentage) what was paid during the Middle Ages.
It does not try to position it as anything other than a subscription, and the language is plain english.

Yup, plain english which is pretty loaded in the favor of subscription. Point me to one heading which says "VIP subscription costs only 39 USD per month".

every retailer has to optimize their site to perform

This is not the same thing. The typical shopping site constitutes of 1 time purchases. When I google for a product and end up on your site and try to purchase something, I am not going to think it's a crazy thing like monthly subscription whether I buy something or not. Given this scenario, choosing a default like that is not simply optimizing.

We can argue over the fine details, but you can't convince me that this is not shady.