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There is something I'd call Subscription Fatigue. People and businesses are asked to pay subscription fees left and right. If I convert my bank statements only

There is something I'd call Subscription Fatigue. People and businesses are asked to pay subscription fees left and right. If I convert my bank statements only each quarter in a spike or once or twice a year, why should I pay for each month or the entire year? Of course I don't know the real usage patterns of this application, but that's one scenario I'd think of.

senectus1 22d ago
hell yes. I hit this wall about 2-3 years ago at least...
johndubchak 22d ago
The perceptive utility of software declines when it is subscription-based in current times. A one-time fee for software is reasonable to a purchaser, renting/leasing software is no longer economical for the size of most phone apps...too little for too much. *Edit: Apparently I forgot how to spell.
bayindirh 22d ago
Subscription fatigue is real, and I'm currently going through it, but it's not the existence of subscription-only model which nudges me to cancel a membership. If I pay for something, I want the tool to work for me. I can't use an application if it tries to steal my attention all the time. An upgrade pop-up there, a reminder notification there, and the application wears me down. I like quiet applications. It's there. I'll use it. An unobtrusive promo button for a new feature is OK, but constant nudging for the same thing is tiring. Dropbox used to do that with document signatures, they stopped now AFAICS. If I pay for your application, please be patient and respectful, because the moment I feel that your application is more about getting my money than providing me services, I'm out. The value I get is in the service you provide via your application. Not the existence of said application, so stop treating your users as cows in line waiting to be milked. This is another reason I'm self hosting as much as possible. I'm willing to put in the work to maintain an application rather than seeing constant banners and pop-ups wedged in to milk me more.
- Helmut10001 22d ago
  This sounds all like Mark Weiser's "Calm Technology" from 20 years ago [1]. I can't await when that future arrives! (I also self-host and have zero subscriptions, except the Proxmox community license - which is, beyond all, a free choice) [1]: https://calmtech.com/ https://calmtech.com/
  - bayindirh 22d ago
    > I can't await when that future arrives! I don't believe such future will arrive by itself, but we can build a calm tech stack for ourselves. I successfully pruned much of the noisier stuff from my environment, and cutting down subscriptions left and right. Unfortunately, some of the subscriptions are really useful, or I like how they present the thing I'm working on, so they stay for the time being. Thanks for the link. I'll be diving into this.
  - gumby 22d ago
    In theory we will delegate this to agents, but really companies can already do that (plenty of software does upgrade itself in backgroud (some doesn’t because the user may want to peg an older version). But really that cacophony of upgrades etc isn’t about user control, but just companies reminding you they exist. It’s spam, and like spam fighting, agents will not be able to handle it adequately.
    - Helmut10001 22d ago
      Really, upgrading in the background is not calm technology to me: Windows Upgrades almost daily and my PC slows down, Firefox upgrades in the background and my tabs become unresponsive daily. I prefer the apt-Linux approach, even Ansible, or chocolatey. Anyway, I am not surprised that there are different definitions of what calm means (no offense!).
      - bayindirh 22d ago
        I believe there are good ways and bad ways to the background updates. macOS and iOS doing updates when you are not looking is good because they store your app state most of the time. Some macOS programs' "We have downloaded the update, it'll update silently when you exit" is also nice and kind way of doing it. Firefox recently remedied its "We updated in the background but broke the runtime" problem for some months now on Linux and macOS, from which I observe. However nudging, aggressive updates, forcing user to stop or take breaks are not calm technology. I accept that wholeheartedly.
swat535 21d ago
The problem is that web applications have an ongoing monthly cost to maintain for bandwidth, usage, disk space, etc.. so the only solution is to charge a subscription. Yes, traditional software also has a cost for maintenance and features but users could opt out to not pay for them. I personally rather to either pay per usage, pay for the full year if it's valuable enough to purchase a license for desktop / mobile apps if possible.

senectus1 22d ago

hell yes. I hit this wall about 2-3 years ago at least...

johndubchak 22d ago

The perceptive utility of software declines when it is subscription-based in current times. A one-time fee for software is reasonable to a purchaser, renting/leasing software is no longer economical for the size of most phone apps...too little for too much. *Edit: Apparently I forgot how to spell.

bayindirh 22d ago

Subscription fatigue is real, and I'm currently going through it, but it's not the existence of subscription-only model which nudges me to cancel a membership. If I pay for something, I want the tool to work for me. I can't use an application if it tries to steal my attention all the time. An upgrade pop-up there, a reminder notification there, and the application wears me down. I like quiet applications. It's there. I'll use it. An unobtrusive promo button for a new feature is OK, but constant nudging for the same thing is tiring. Dropbox used to do that with document signatures, they stopped now AFAICS. If I pay for your application, please be patient and respectful, because the moment I feel that your application is more about getting my money than providing me services, I'm out. The value I get is in the service you provide via your application. Not the existence of said application, so stop treating your users as cows in line waiting to be milked. This is another reason I'm self hosting as much as possible. I'm willing to put in the work to maintain an application rather than seeing constant banners and pop-ups wedged in to milk me more.

Helmut10001 22d ago
This sounds all like Mark Weiser's "Calm Technology" from 20 years ago [1]. I can't await when that future arrives! (I also self-host and have zero subscriptions, except the Proxmox community license - which is, beyond all, a free choice) [1]: https://calmtech.com/ https://calmtech.com/
- bayindirh 22d ago
  > I can't await when that future arrives! I don't believe such future will arrive by itself, but we can build a calm tech stack for ourselves. I successfully pruned much of the noisier stuff from my environment, and cutting down subscriptions left and right. Unfortunately, some of the subscriptions are really useful, or I like how they present the thing I'm working on, so they stay for the time being. Thanks for the link. I'll be diving into this.
- gumby 22d ago
  In theory we will delegate this to agents, but really companies can already do that (plenty of software does upgrade itself in backgroud (some doesn’t because the user may want to peg an older version). But really that cacophony of upgrades etc isn’t about user control, but just companies reminding you they exist. It’s spam, and like spam fighting, agents will not be able to handle it adequately.
  - Helmut10001 22d ago
    Really, upgrading in the background is not calm technology to me: Windows Upgrades almost daily and my PC slows down, Firefox upgrades in the background and my tabs become unresponsive daily. I prefer the apt-Linux approach, even Ansible, or chocolatey. Anyway, I am not surprised that there are different definitions of what calm means (no offense!).
    - bayindirh 22d ago
      I believe there are good ways and bad ways to the background updates. macOS and iOS doing updates when you are not looking is good because they store your app state most of the time. Some macOS programs' "We have downloaded the update, it'll update silently when you exit" is also nice and kind way of doing it. Firefox recently remedied its "We updated in the background but broke the runtime" problem for some months now on Linux and macOS, from which I observe. However nudging, aggressive updates, forcing user to stop or take breaks are not calm technology. I accept that wholeheartedly.

swat535 21d ago

The problem is that web applications have an ongoing monthly cost to maintain for bandwidth, usage, disk space, etc.. so the only solution is to charge a subscription. Yes, traditional software also has a cost for maintenance and features but users could opt out to not pay for them. I personally rather to either pay per usage, pay for the full year if it's valuable enough to purchase a license for desktop / mobile apps if possible.