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The reason I ask is that we're in the monetization phase of my app and it's also Open Source: https://getpolarized.io/ https://getpolarized.io/ It's basically

The reason I ask is that we're in the monetization phase of my app and it's also Open Source: https://getpolarized.io/ https://getpolarized.io/ It's basically a PDF and document management repository. It's kind of like Mendeley/Zotero meets Kindle+Github. I'm kicking around some ideas including just make it flat out free and just focusing on growth to charging for some premium features like cloud sync. One of the things we're struggling with is many of our users are from the HN community and they aren't really open to using something like cloud sync as they don't trust cloud.

Jtsummers 8y ago
For what it's worth: I pay for software when it has value to me, and your product does have value to me. I haven't used it much yet (see below), but I really like what it can offer. I have paid for: iOS: GoodReader, Working Copy, OmniFocus, Anki, and Scrivener (these are also among my more frequently used apps). I've paid for some games over the years but mostly board game ports to iPad (because carrying around boxes of games is a PITA). The rest of the apps on my iPhone (iPad isn't handy) are communication apps, media consumption apps (that I may pay a subscription for), or apps for a specific business (like a bank or airline). My iPad will be similar except it'll have the games. macOS: I've paid for HeroLab, Scrivener, OmniFocus, YNAB4 (of the apps still on my laptop). I have also, in the past, paid for Parallels and some other things but they're not installed and I haven't missed them. I have also bought video games, but none presently installed. The rest of what I use is generally open source. I have Anki and would pay for it if the author sold it. I would get more value from Polar Bookshelf if you had an iOS offering as that is where I do the bulk of my PDF reading (or Android, I do have a Kindle Fire I use for reading though less frequently). If it were available there, I'd happily pay for it. But I don't need cloud sync. I have sufficient cloud storage already and plenty of room to host the files I'd add to Polar (actually, most of what I'd add I actually have but haven't read in my Dropbox account already).

Jtsummers 8y ago

For what it's worth: I pay for software when it has value to me, and your product does have value to me. I haven't used it much yet (see below), but I really like what it can offer. I have paid for: iOS: GoodReader, Working Copy, OmniFocus, Anki, and Scrivener (these are also among my more frequently used apps). I've paid for some games over the years but mostly board game ports to iPad (because carrying around boxes of games is a PITA). The rest of the apps on my iPhone (iPad isn't handy) are communication apps, media consumption apps (that I may pay a subscription for), or apps for a specific business (like a bank or airline). My iPad will be similar except it'll have the games. macOS: I've paid for HeroLab, Scrivener, OmniFocus, YNAB4 (of the apps still on my laptop). I have also, in the past, paid for Parallels and some other things but they're not installed and I haven't missed them. I have also bought video games, but none presently installed. The rest of what I use is generally open source. I have Anki and would pay for it if the author sold it. I would get more value from Polar Bookshelf if you had an iOS offering as that is where I do the bulk of my PDF reading (or Android, I do have a Kindle Fire I use for reading though less frequently). If it were available there, I'd happily pay for it. But I don't need cloud sync. I have sufficient cloud storage already and plenty of room to host the files I'd add to Polar (actually, most of what I'd add I actually have but haven't read in my Dropbox account already).