[kerkeslager]

> Its fees don't seem noticeably higher than fees I encounter on other government booking systems.

So what's the acceptable upper limit of rent we should be charged to use a website that's already built to use lands our taxes already paid to buy to a company who provides little-to-no ongoing service to us?

[freeopinion]

It's easy to get emotional about this. But when I try to be fair, I acknowledge that "little-to-no ongoing service" is probably not completely accurate.

There are storage systems, databases, app servers, etc. that all need some degree of constant care. I don't know what the scale or structure of those systems are, so it is difficult to say what that cost should be. Perhaps it qualifies as "little". It almost certainly does not qualify as "none".

Of course, the hardware and the labor might already be included in the taxes I pay. I don't know that either. I wonder how much work it would take to sort out all the different sources of revenue Booz has from this.

[kerkeslager]

> It's easy to get emotional about this.

For most of Hacker News, it's easier to avoid the emotions that would come with actually looking at the horrible things corporations are doing to our society. You'll defend corporations no matter what, pretending to take the "rational" approach, because you benefit from corporations that are doing many of the same harms.

But being unemotional in the face of constant corporate destructive behaviors isn't rational or normal, it's effectively sociopathic. Yes, I'm emotional, because I have a conscience and I listen to it. You don't get to dismiss what I'm saying because it's emotional. Not being emotional when companies do shite like this is the problem. It's not my emotions that are the problem, it's your lack of emotions that's the problem. Where is your conscience? Why aren't you emotional when corporations do harmful things and profit?

> But when I try to be fair, I acknowledge that "little-to-no ongoing service" is probably not completely accurate.

Bro, I'm a freelance full stack web developer, and I've been the part-time sole developer for sites that serve millions of customers, because you don't need even one full-time dev to maintain a system to which you're not adding new features. There's literally nothing you have said I'm not aware of, and I'm saying "little-to-none" because that's accurate.

The largest costs here are hosting fees. If the system is at all efficient, that can easily be handled for <$10k/year, but let's just say $100k/year because even that amount is literally irrelevant. Millions of people book with the NPS yearly and pay a $6 fee. There is no way the money here comes even close to being reasonable.

You aren't trying to be fair. You're trying to defend corporations at any cost, like many folks on Hacker News. Your ideology is one of the most harmful forces in our society today.

[thorncorona]

> There are storage systems, databases, app servers, etc. that all need some degree of constant care. I don't know what the scale or structure of those systems are, so it is difficult to say what that cost should be. Perhaps it qualifies as "little". It almost certainly does not qualify as "none".

You could have this entire setup managed by AWS / GCP for < 1k a month. It's not a complicated site.

And then maybe 1/2 devs for ongoing maintenance.

[shortrounddev2]

You know you still have to pay to enter a national park right? And pay for the campsite reservations?

[thorncorona]

But $9 for a fucking lotto ticket? To something I already pay taxes on?

[shortrounddev2]

It sounds like your issue is with the federal government charging fees for the national parks, not booze Allen Hamilton charging a processing fee for it.

[somehnguy]

That’s not what I got from the parent comment at all.