cross-posted from: https://lemmy.today/post/12700714

On mobile, it prompts you to either "get the app" or "open app" with no way to click past. Screenshot won't upload.

This is worse from several months ago https://lemmy.today/post/8935690

crosspost from: https://lemmy.world/post/10321573

> i've never been on this site before -- that is to say, you don't even get like a couple free words > > what a joke

cross-posted from: https://feddit.it/post/3381833 >Exciting news for who? Only the site owner is excited that a free resource now requires a subscription > > "Yay! Now I have to pay another subscription! I'm so excited! Let's celebrate with them!" - nobody

Bit of a rant here, but I am currently subscribed to a game development related Patreon because I wanted to follow the development of a project that was interesting to me. The reason I covered the name is that the developer is doing a fantastic job with the project, posting regularly and providing interesting and informative posts, but the main advantage of Patreon is simply that he also provides builds which I was interested in checking out.

Patreon rebilled at the beginning of the month and I thought "Fine I guess, but I don't really want to pay $6 a month to get test builds of this game" and tried to cancel, assuming it would simply not rebill next month, but instead of cancelling rebilling, Patreon says I will immediately lose access to everything I can currently see on Patreon and new posts for this month, even though it billed me for this month literally three days ago.

There is no technical reason they can't just cancel rebilling and allow me to access this subscription until the end of the month, but they are clearly hoping I'll be scared to lose access to what I've paid for and will forget about cancelling later in the month, which would be the better time to do it, since I would benefit from access to more posts and development builds. There are a few other subscriptions I've used in the past that remove access to everything the instant you cancel, but even Amazon lets me continue free trials of Prime until the end of the trial period when I cancel it.

There are presumably no laws against this, or it was mentioned in some legal bullshit I ignored when signing up, but I do think that there should be a law that forces providers of subscription services to allow users to access their subscription for the entire period for which they have paid, regardless of whether they cancel their subscription if no refund is due.

cross-posted from: https://feddit.uk/post/3078732

> cross-posted from: https://radiation.party/post/118334 > > > [ comments | sourced from HackerNews \] > > > Welcome to the Internet of Stings, an occasional series in which we report on connected devices that are abruptly bricked or rendered considerably more costly due to the actions of their vendors. > > > > Today's tale concerns the Miku Baby Monitor, a $400 device aimed at parents who want to check up on their precious poppet from the comfort of their smartphone. > > > > Spend the cash and you'll get a camera that will also monitor breathing, room temperature, humidity, and provide some two-way communication to reassure the baby that its parent or guardian has taken a break from YouTube or Candy Crush to check that all is well. > > > > The upfront cost was steep, but what price can one put on the reassurance of a breathing waveform and being able to bring up some live video while you're out and about? Apparently, $9.99 a month.

Louis getting pissed off by gym memberships is very entertaining. And he is right!

"Subscribed" (subscribed and right after unsubscribed) to Game Pass because of a deal for 1$. When my subscription was closing in, got this in a new tab called "recommendations". It says:

---

Continue playing

Time to renew your subscription.

---

When I removed this notification, the whole tab disappeared.

I admit I don't quite get what is supposed to appear as the point of it.

But it seems like an example of a subscription service where a few people caving and using it make things worse for everybody.

Verification as a concept definitely makes sense. I can even imagine a one-time fee for it, as there may be some associated costs. Fair.

But once you start charging a subscription fee, it absolutely stops being a service for the good of the community, and starts just being a thing you want to sell as much as possible. Meaning the standards for verification drop, possibly to zero (like on Twitter), and the whole system loses any actual meaning. But people who do have a need for verification will need to keep paying too, just for appearance.

I think it's a lesson/example in why subscriptions suck, and why is it generally a good idea to discourage people from signing up to subscriptions like this. Even if it's "just a couple bucks". Eventually you'll just be paying for a pointless, if not an actively hostile system.

Gee, just charge for dark mode like Snapchat, or non-ugly icons like Reddit. Just don't mess up something essential people rely on?

This is just a reminder, if you think some subscription from a gigacorp is a good deal. It even might be, for a while. Then the price will go up and up once people get used to the idea.

It's one of the problems of subscription services in general.

Yes, I know. Raising prices is and has always been a normal part of life. The thing is, the more services are subscription-based, the more these price hikes can be bothersome.

If the cost of toilet paper goes up more than you find comfortable, you can at least to try to budget it better and use less of it. Maybe you can stockpile it or borrow some. If it were a subscription toilet paper, you either have it or don't have it. Or maybe you'll get paper that prints ads onto your...

I'm getting silly. You get my point. Subscriptions can make sense, but also be a major trap.

Honestly I don't even think it's that unreasonable, considering how much money a tool like this can save.

Nevertheless - it's yet another subscription to eventually make us reliant on services with monthly payments forever. And it's Microsoft, so there is no way this isn't another step towards a boring cyberpunk dystopia.

Don't forget that Office itself is also a subscription, even tho everything you need has been there since Office 95 or so. *) I'm still not used to that idea.

Man, this AI really turns out to be a golden goose and an overall weird thing. Can't we have Skynet instead of this boring death by a thousand cuts?

*) It's only a tiny hyperbole.

cross-posted from: https://yiffit.net/post/475688

> Xbox Game Pass Core subscribers will get access to a small selection of the games available with the regular/higher tiers of Game Pass, starting with more than 25 games

==========

2 years ago I had to move to a temp place. First evening, I unpacked my PS3 which I hadn't had time for for a long time. Lots of games on it (and on discs), so I could just sit and play Journey.

Had all my games had been this subscription sort, I'd have nothing.

Now I know you can still buy games - for now, anyway. But since these companies make you pay for multiplayer anyway, it's an easy upsell for them. Just pay a bit more and you can play so many games... Just pay forever.

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/1539142

> LG to offer subscriptions for already purchased appliances and televisions, evolving into a provider for “Home as a Service”::Subscription fatigue is a thing and regulators are circling, but Korean giant reckons you're ready to cough up after buying hardware

Last year I got an iPad pro as a gift. I've been meaning to do more with it especially photo editing and I finally got around to looking into it.

But....every damn photo app seems to be a subscription. The ones that aren't are very basic.

Until I found Affinity Photo 2.

Holy hell, an extremely full featured photo app with no sub?! It's like Lightroom and Photoshop rolled into one for a one-time payment of $A30.

I took a few days to learn it and once you do it's very good.

For the cost of buying Affinity forever I could get Adobe's photo plan for just 2 months!

For someone like me who will use this stuff lightly, going some months without using it at all, subscription software sucks.

Well done to Affinity for providing a high quality alternative. Give them a look - they also have Windows and Mac versions.

This sounds like an ad but it's not, I'm just so tired of having subs pushed in my face - especially on the app store - that when I find a good alternative I feel like shouting about it!

The article about the "subscription" HP ink made me realise something.

Subscriptions aren't a new idea at all. You could subscribe to paper magazines. And you got to keep them.

I'm just clearing up my old house and it's filled with tons of old tech magazines. Lots of useful knowledge here. Wanna know how Windows and Mac compared in 1993? It's in here. All the forgotten technologies? Old games, old phones, whatever? You'll find it.

Now, granted. You'd only get one magazine a month. Not a whole library of movies or games or comic books.

But still, the very definition of subscription has shifted. Now, the common meaning is "you only get to use these things as long as you're paying". Nobody even thinks it could mean anything else.

Besides, it doesn't only apply to services that offer entire libraries. Online magazines still exist in a similar form as the paper ones. But you only get to access them while your "subscription" is active. Even the stuff you had while you were paying.

BTW I'm not throwing my old magazines away. I won't have the space, but a friend is taking it all. If they wouldn't, I'd give them to a library or let someone take them. The online and streaming stuff of today and tomorrow? In 30 years it'll be gone, forgotten and inaccessible.

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.ml/post/1962740

> also from r/StallmanWasRight

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/1306163

> Njudah on Instagram

NOTE The original is about a Kickstarter. I'm not endorsing it or anything. Just reposting.

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/1209676

> "The art and design communities, in particular, are feeling the pinch from Adobe Suite going towards a rental model, and now the artist and perennial thorn in the side of anyone who seeks to own a colour, [Stuart Semple] is doing something about it. He’s launching a competing suite called provocatively, Abode, which will follow an affordable paid-for licence model." > > https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/culturehustle/abode-a-suite-of-world-class-design-and-photography-tools > > > The Abode project seems overly optimistic in terms of scope, cost and timing to me but then I've never been involved in software development. Still, alternatives to the big names are always nice.

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/904274

> Subscription strikes again!

Interesting video from Louis Rossmann. This time it isnt bad news rather possible good news!

I still remember when this cloud thing was just starting, and some people were absolutely glowing that they can have 4 gigs in the cloud for only 5 bucks a month. At the time I had been drowning in 4GB and larger memory cards for probably a decade.

What are your oppinions on this? And what would you all think about that happening to brain implants "Subscription".

I bet they are trying to go even further in the future... say a subscription to even use your Quest. I hope not.

(Ok I don't know if this is actually subscription, but it's definitely the same shit.)

Sorry for the Yahoo link...

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/474382