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So the story here is that Pinboard used to be a site that charged a one-time signup fee for basic accounts, and in 2015 switched to an annual fee. People who si

So the story here is that Pinboard used to be a site that charged a one-time signup fee for basic accounts, and in 2015 switched to an annual fee. People who signed up before the change in business model were grandfathered and grandmothered in, since a deal was a deal. Most companies solve the problem of lifetime accounts by going out of business or pivoting, but this isn't really the Pinboard style. At the same time, the situation in 2021 is different than in 2015, let alone in 2009. As outlined in the letter, having old-style users move to the new model would give me resources to do a lot more on the site than just keep it running. Over the years, a number of people told me they'd be happy to pay annually to support the site. It occurred to me that I would also be happy to take their money. So I finally built a mechanism that pre-2015 users could use to voluntarily convert accounts over. I was looking for a low-drama way to announce this, laying out my reasons while not forcing anyone who didn't want to switch to make the change. So I sent out an email. But here we are on the front page of Hacker News instead.

tptacek 6y ago
Put a button on the site that lets me send you some fixed amount of more money and a bunch of us will push it. I clicked the link in this mail and it said "nothing to see here". Do I have to sign my non-consenting kids up for accounts? You once made fun of me for how few bookmarks I had in the site. Then I learned about full-text search. Now I'd be fucked without Pinboard.
- idlewords 6y ago
  If you got the email, it was by mistake. Old-timey users who have archiving are already paying the full rate and were not the audience for what was supposed to be a modest effort to expand the recurring revenue base in a low-key way.
  - omilu 6y ago
    converted and got my 10 year old an account also, thanks for the fantastic service!
deleted 6y ago
[deleted]
jwr 6y ago
It's a good direction to take. One-time payments are a fiction: one can't reasonably expect to pay once and use a continuously developed and maintained service forever. Subscriptions are the way to go and I'm happy to pay for stuff that I actually use, so that it is sustainably developed. I will be converting my account.
oneeyedpigeon 6y ago
I didn't get the email, but I did sign up in 2014, and /convert confirms that. I love the service, and I was particularly taken by the old style business model which increased sign-up cost over time - if this means that model didn't pay off, it's sad news. I would be more than willing to pay a subscription were I able to. I'm not currently earning enough money to pay my outgoings, unfortunately, so I'm currently looking to cut subscriptions rather than go in the other direction. However, I'm close to breaking even, and if I find myself in a position where I have a surplus, pinboard will be one of the first things I support. Given the circumstances, I'd be totally understanding if you decided, one day, to retire such accounts as mine. I've previously contacted you on two issues relating to the API and sadly never heard back. One was a simple question, one was to report a bug. I understand you're busy, though, and you took some time to investigate problems with my delicious account resurrection the other day, which I do appreciate.
- idlewords 6y ago
  Thanks for those kind words! One of the many reasons I'm making this voluntary is that there's a variety of people who are not in a financial position to switch over now, and I don't want to yank the rug out from under them. You can't really look at the old-style business model in isolation—the world of 2009 was one where there was a really popular free bookmarking service, and it was easy to piggyback off of them by offering better privacy and higher information density to a frustrated segment of their users. In 2021, most link sharing has moved into siloed apps like Twitter, Facebook or Reddit, so there's not that big population of average Joe and Jane bookmarkers to draw from, and people have much higher expectations as far as their ability to manage large collections goes. There are also very deep-pocketed competitors (one baked into a major browser) that charge steep annual fees. The business has changed.
nicholausk 6y ago
Not sure if it says somewhere and I'm missing it; does the annual fee auto renew?
- TrueGeek 6y ago
  It does not. You just get an email that your account has expired with a link to renew.

tptacek 6y ago

Put a button on the site that lets me send you some fixed amount of more money and a bunch of us will push it. I clicked the link in this mail and it said "nothing to see here". Do I have to sign my non-consenting kids up for accounts? You once made fun of me for how few bookmarks I had in the site. Then I learned about full-text search. Now I'd be fucked without Pinboard.

idlewords 6y ago
If you got the email, it was by mistake. Old-timey users who have archiving are already paying the full rate and were not the audience for what was supposed to be a modest effort to expand the recurring revenue base in a low-key way.
- omilu 6y ago
  converted and got my 10 year old an account also, thanks for the fantastic service!

deleted 6y ago

[deleted]

jwr 6y ago

It's a good direction to take. One-time payments are a fiction: one can't reasonably expect to pay once and use a continuously developed and maintained service forever. Subscriptions are the way to go and I'm happy to pay for stuff that I actually use, so that it is sustainably developed. I will be converting my account.

oneeyedpigeon 6y ago

I didn't get the email, but I did sign up in 2014, and /convert confirms that. I love the service, and I was particularly taken by the old style business model which increased sign-up cost over time - if this means that model didn't pay off, it's sad news. I would be more than willing to pay a subscription were I able to. I'm not currently earning enough money to pay my outgoings, unfortunately, so I'm currently looking to cut subscriptions rather than go in the other direction. However, I'm close to breaking even, and if I find myself in a position where I have a surplus, pinboard will be one of the first things I support. Given the circumstances, I'd be totally understanding if you decided, one day, to retire such accounts as mine. I've previously contacted you on two issues relating to the API and sadly never heard back. One was a simple question, one was to report a bug. I understand you're busy, though, and you took some time to investigate problems with my delicious account resurrection the other day, which I do appreciate.

idlewords 6y ago
Thanks for those kind words! One of the many reasons I'm making this voluntary is that there's a variety of people who are not in a financial position to switch over now, and I don't want to yank the rug out from under them. You can't really look at the old-style business model in isolation—the world of 2009 was one where there was a really popular free bookmarking service, and it was easy to piggyback off of them by offering better privacy and higher information density to a frustrated segment of their users. In 2021, most link sharing has moved into siloed apps like Twitter, Facebook or Reddit, so there's not that big population of average Joe and Jane bookmarkers to draw from, and people have much higher expectations as far as their ability to manage large collections goes. There are also very deep-pocketed competitors (one baked into a major browser) that charge steep annual fees. The business has changed.

nicholausk 6y ago

Not sure if it says somewhere and I'm missing it; does the annual fee auto renew?

TrueGeek 6y ago
It does not. You just get an email that your account has expired with a link to renew.