291–300 of 438 posts
Do these businesses want me to find out who's charging me by doing a chargeback and seeing who gets mad? Can there be some better standards for how transactions are documented in financial records?
They hate subscription boxes, but surely they added an affiliate link to one said subscription box in their article and then spammed it on HN for more traction.
I don't mind subscriptions, I actually prefer them for many things. Especially for software I rely on I want the developers to consistently earn money so they keep motivated to work on it, do maintenance and fix bugs. I don't pay for software, I pay for the thing it allows me to do. Me paying a subscription fee creates an incentive and responsibility to keep things working. If there is a backend component to its even…
Sketch is now subscription-only; previously you paid for one year of updates. If you stopped paying for updates you could still continue to use the desktop app (i.e. the app did not expire).
The current Sketch model means you can use the app only when you pay to use the app: pay every year, or pay for a monthly usage.
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> I pay for the thing it allows me to do Why can't software ever be "finished" or "sufficient" to meet your needs? I don't see the point of having software is updated day after day, month after month, if I am not interested in the new features they bring.
Security vulnerabilities are regularly found in many softwares (both online and offline), so that's one reason to upgrade.
That seems like "hey, we develop our software the worst way so that it's always full of bugs, but if you want less bugs, buy our subscription". Complete conflict of interest vs making quality and well-tested software in the first place.
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Where does it end? I'm liable for my client's laziness in not upgrading to a patched version?
This just reads to me that you don't want to have to accept any liability for the work you produce. Why shouldn't you be liable for the initial flawed software that you sold to an unsuspecting buyer? Why should you be able to suddenly shift liability onto your customer by releasing a patch? In the United States, the landmark product liability case was Escola v. Coca-Cola Bottling Co. . In the majority decision, one o…
Consider the example of a music player that was mentioned in another comment upstream in this thread. Suppose a company sells music player software that turns out to have a RCE vulnerability when run on a maliciously crafted .mp3 file. Should they be liable?
It's helpful to consider a physical product analogy: imagine the company sold a cassette player instead. Now, let's say that someone designs a malicious tape that is lined with noxious chemicals, which when played in the cassette player causes it to catch on fire and explode. Would anyone regard the cassette maker as liable if this caused someone to die or a house to burn down?
In the Escola v. Coca-Cola Bottling Co. case that you cite, a key phrase from the majority opinion is:
> Upon an examination of the record, the evidence appears sufficient to support a reasonable inference that the bottle here involved was not damaged by any extraneous force after delivery to the restaurant by defendant.
In other words, there was no 3rd party malicious use or manipulation of the bottle: it exploded during "normal" use. If the bottle had exploded because some 3rd party had deliberately weakened the bottle, or added extra pressure before giving it to the waitress, there's no way Coca-Cola would have been liable.
Dear customers: we know. But our businesses are viable as subscription services, and not as one-off or ad-hoc puchase models. We know because we tried them. So we're catering to the people who are OK with buying a subscription because there are enough of them. Sorry if that doesn't suit you.
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Agreed, it's usually nothing to do with the fact they weren't viable before, it's just that subscriptions are more profitable. With cost of living crisis and such, soon enough though it won't be able to last. People are already cancelling one of the biggest main subscriptions they have (netflix). Also I fear this is really changing society. Many years ago, as you got older you got into a better place in life because…
> your headphones needs replacing every few years This part is absolutely bonkers to me and absurd that we’ve accepted it. I’m an amateur music producer. Many producers I know, even pros, use headphones that are years old, some even decades old. Most of the bestselling models haven’t changed at all in decades. You can use them for years and the only parts you need to replace are the ear cushions and cable. Most manuf…
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I don’t see what’s SAAS about a content subscription but yes, I prefer that. Reason being that I’m often unsure how deep I want to go in a subject, so putting up say $20/mo gives me the option of only spending $20 if during the first month I decide it’s not what I want. If you want to see a very good (IMO) implementation of this model, check out Ray Wenderlich. Lots of free stuff to show you the style. Then $20/mo or…
> I don’t see what’s SAAS about a content subscription but yes, I prefer that. Yeah that's a fair point. I boiled this down to paying per month or a 1 time purchase. It was coming from a more general angle where it could be content, a product / service or heated seats which when you think about it all have different tastes. Content and a service could be classified as different. For example I don't mind the idea of p…
I’m backing someone on Patreon who has maybe a dozen videos out, but it’s a hard subject and I’m determined to learn it and she releases about one new video a week. The production quality isn’t very high but you can see she puts a lot of work into it, planning and transcripts and stuff.
Teaching is hard!
So yeah my advice is market test by asking people you know who know your subject, then yes put it out there with some free content and some paid monthly. Or just try Patreon if the audience is big enough.
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Security vulnerabilities are regularly found in many softwares (both online and offline), so that's one reason to upgrade.
Security vulnerabilities should be fixed by patches/security fixes w/o forcing users to go up the ladder to "za niu anz shaini version" + "our new and enhanced x$/mo"
With that said it can get problematic fixing old third party packages that are no longer supported.
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After paying for housing, power, food, insurance, transportation, savings, …, I have maybe 1000$ left for spending every month. I don’t want to spend 10% of it for some apps/services that save me maybe a few minutes every months, for tasks that can be also somehow achieved with the apps that came with my phone.
Then you’re not the target market. It’s just supply and demand. If not enough people want to pay that subscription, they will stop and change model (or shut down). But if this is sustainable enough to pay for their dev, it doesn’t look like they should cater to you as those are non critical tasks for you and they barely have any impact on your life.
Seems like it, that’s why we are complaining :)