2 ms·

I am sympathetic to the developer too and quite amused with how many people have the pitchforks ready. A solo developer offered a lifetime license not thinking

I am sympathetic to the developer too and quite amused with how many people have the pitchforks ready. A solo developer offered a lifetime license not thinking they would still be working on it 25 years later. Asks nicely that if you have been using it for over 10 years to think about supporting the product you use. Was a lifetime license a great idea? No probably not but the way the developer handled does not seem like a money grab but value for their continued support on a product 25 years later.

zmxz 4y ago
> how many people have the pitchforks ready Empathy is lost on internet, hidden behind entitlement.
faefox 4y ago
No kidding. I never registered my copy of mIRC as a kid (sorry Khaled!) but in hindsight it would've been one of the sounder financial decisions I could've made in grade school.
Semaphor 4y ago
> Asks nicely that if you have been using it for over 10 years to think about supporting the product you use. If they were asking nicely, I assume there would be no pitchforks. Instead they reverted the license, and you can find a FAQ on their website that tells you that you can email them, and eventually they’ll un-revert the license.
coupdejarnac 4y ago
I wish I could have a list of everyone who thinks $20 for 20 years of support is unreasonable, so I could avoid having them as customers.
- jqpabc123 4y ago
  I wish I could have a list of everyone who thinks revoking licensed support is reasonable, so I could have them as customers. This is not about dollars, it is about ethics.
  - coupdejarnac 4y ago
    It's not about ethics, it's about what's reasonable. Yeah it sucks that the author can't uphold the lifetime license, but the alternative is that he closes up shop. $20 frickin dollars, man. Less than $1 per year, and you're complaining about ethics. Some people enjoy eating and paying for housing. Nobody wants to be your customer with the expectation that they are cheated out of value. However, who has been cheated out of value in this case? Noone. The app provided more than $1/year of value for its users. Whoever paid for mirc got their money's worth and more. I'd love to see a poll about what percentage of people complaining about ethics have ever run a small business. I stopped developing iOS apps, because it's not possible to write the software once and charge once. You have to grind through bullshit API changes every year, and users want something for nothing.
    - jqpabc123 4y ago
      I stopped developing iOS apps, because it's not possible to write the software once and charge once. Good. You did the honorable and ethical thing. Or, you could have changed to a paid support model for new customers only. But you're arguing for a very different approach --- changing the license after lifetime support was sold. This is not good --- or ethical. It doesn't even make sense from a business perspective. How many people will pay again after they were lied to? They have no reason to believe the new license will be honored any better than the old one. Credibility has been lost.

zmxz 4y ago

> how many people have the pitchforks ready Empathy is lost on internet, hidden behind entitlement.

faefox 4y ago

No kidding. I never registered my copy of mIRC as a kid (sorry Khaled!) but in hindsight it would've been one of the sounder financial decisions I could've made in grade school.

Semaphor 4y ago

> Asks nicely that if you have been using it for over 10 years to think about supporting the product you use. If they were asking nicely, I assume there would be no pitchforks. Instead they reverted the license, and you can find a FAQ on their website that tells you that you can email them, and eventually they’ll un-revert the license.

coupdejarnac 4y ago

I wish I could have a list of everyone who thinks $20 for 20 years of support is unreasonable, so I could avoid having them as customers.

jqpabc123 4y ago
I wish I could have a list of everyone who thinks revoking licensed support is reasonable, so I could have them as customers. This is not about dollars, it is about ethics.
- coupdejarnac 4y ago
  It's not about ethics, it's about what's reasonable. Yeah it sucks that the author can't uphold the lifetime license, but the alternative is that he closes up shop. $20 frickin dollars, man. Less than $1 per year, and you're complaining about ethics. Some people enjoy eating and paying for housing. Nobody wants to be your customer with the expectation that they are cheated out of value. However, who has been cheated out of value in this case? Noone. The app provided more than $1/year of value for its users. Whoever paid for mirc got their money's worth and more. I'd love to see a poll about what percentage of people complaining about ethics have ever run a small business. I stopped developing iOS apps, because it's not possible to write the software once and charge once. You have to grind through bullshit API changes every year, and users want something for nothing.
  - jqpabc123 4y ago
    I stopped developing iOS apps, because it's not possible to write the software once and charge once. Good. You did the honorable and ethical thing. Or, you could have changed to a paid support model for new customers only. But you're arguing for a very different approach --- changing the license after lifetime support was sold. This is not good --- or ethical. It doesn't even make sense from a business perspective. How many people will pay again after they were lied to? They have no reason to believe the new license will be honored any better than the old one. Credibility has been lost.