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Dear startups: I hate subscription services (2021)

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Re: Dear startups: I hate subscription services (2021)

#381

Post by charcircuit »

signaru wrote: post #143
mattjenner wrote: post #21

Dear innovative people: think of a better model. 1. Free = problematic with the lack of money 2. Freemium = looks good if the balance is right 3. Ads = Mostly works but the model is flawed and skewed 4. Subscription = Love/Hate currently trendy but too relied on 5. Pay-what-you-can = Fans provide the service for everyone 6. Premium only = Only what it's worth, when it's worth 7. Enterprise = S'ok because my company/o…

Another idea: pausable subscription (like cancelling then re-subscribing, but without the hassle or stigma). I think I've seen a music plugin do this before. It's the idea of losing money to "idle time" that makes me allergic to subscriptions. You'd have to be a business that constantly uses the product for that to make sense. The opposite effect is you are pressured to keep using the product and I feel my friends ar…

Pausable subscriptions sounds hard to market. If netflix said that you need to pay $0.10 / hr people would be less comfortable with spending time on the platform. Every time they watch something they need to make a mental decision of if this episode is going to be worth paying $0.10 or if I should just browse TikTok for free.

Re: Dear startups: I hate subscription services (2021)

#382

Post by nradov »

Kinrany wrote: post #337
julianlam wrote: post #225

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Security vulnerabilities are regularly found in many softwares (both online and offline), so that's one reason to upgrade.

Proprietary software should come with a warranty that covers security vulnerabilities for N years.

Nothing is stopping you from requesting such a warranty from your vendors, and refusing to buy from those who fail to offer such a warranty.

Re: Dear startups: I hate subscription services (2021)

#383

Post by viraptor »

waspight wrote: post #185
viraptor wrote: post #176

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> It is unrealistic to expect to be able to pay once and use an app "forever". That's the other extreme though. There's a middle ground that http://reaper.fm/ uses. You buy the current x and x+1 versions. Then you pay for the license again for x+2, x+3 if you want to. The price is very reasonable and there's no subscription as such. If you're happy with the old major version, you can use it as long as it continues to…

No one should be able to stay on an outdated version, both for security and compatibility reasons. Supporting old versions of you have an api attached is a cost in it self as well.

It's a music editing app, not a public internet facing service. There's an argument to be made for providing updates, but "No one should be able to stay on an outdated version" is just being a dick to the users. Don't disrespect the users.

Re: Dear startups: I hate subscription services (2021)

#384

Post by ekianjo »

alanfranz wrote: post #368
ekianjo wrote: post #216

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> How many games that offer no additional packages keep their online offering working forever? All the games that actually released binaries for hosting your own servers. That used to be the standard back in the day.

Oh, sure. but then they don't keep their online offering; users do. And you need to pay for a VPS instead of a service.

You don't need to pay for a service if it's something you run on your own machines, just when you need to play with friends.

Re: Dear startups: I hate subscription services (2021)

#385

Post by ekianjo »

cinntaile wrote: post #268
ekianjo wrote: post #216

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> How many games that offer no additional packages keep their online offering working forever? All the games that actually released binaries for hosting your own servers. That used to be the standard back in the day.

I don't think that's coming back, but it would be nice if they released the binaries once they stop providing servers for a game.

Something called Minecraft seems to disagree with your conclusion.

Re: Dear startups: I hate subscription services (2021)

#386

Post by dotancohen »

withinboredom wrote: post #81
dotancohen wrote: post #73

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's actually a fair question. The online service still has hosting and bandwidth to pay for at a minimum. Paying them once does not mean that they will be able to pay for hosting and bandwidth for the next twenty years that I expect to use the product. For scale, I've been using VIM for almost thirty years. Twenty years is not an exaggerated number.

4.5 people per second turn 18 years old. Surely you can convince at least one of those people to make a purchase every month?

One $10 - $50 sale per month won't pay for hosting and bandwidth. Not to mention developers' salaries, rent, insurance, electricity, equipment, and a few pence into my childrens' funds.

Re: Dear startups: I hate subscription services (2021)

#388

Post by EugeneOZ »

NoMAD76 wrote: post #241
julianlam wrote: post #225

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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"

Then the money for doing this should be provided to developers by the universe.

Re: Dear startups: I hate subscription services (2021)

#389

Post by EugeneOZ »

Kinrany wrote: post #337
julianlam wrote: post #225

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Security vulnerabilities are regularly found in many softwares (both online and offline), so that's one reason to upgrade.

Proprietary software should come with a warranty that covers security vulnerabilities for N years.

Imagine a developer who has to spend 50-90 hours per month just to provide the promised security patches for each of the 5 products they have created and sold at least once.

Re: Dear startups: I hate subscription services (2021)

#390

Post by EugeneOZ »

bryant wrote: post #378
skeeter2020 wrote: post #286

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>> I don't need constant new features. But I do expect security updates. Isn't updates to software in response to emerging security issues a "feature"?

Nope lol it's most closely relatable to a product recall/repair.

Usually, repair shops are not free.
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