11 ms·

Apparently it's just an A/B test. Legit LMAO moment, speedrunning reputation destruction to your entire userbase just to test a question whose answer you can pr

by 2001zhaozhao 6mo ago

Apparently it's just an A/B test. Legit LMAO moment, speedrunning reputation destruction to your entire userbase just to test a question whose answer you can probably already guess. --- > For clarity, we're running a small test on ~2% of new prosumer signups. Existing Pro and Max subscribers aren't affected. > When we launched Max a year ago, it didn't include Claude Code, Cowork didn't exist, and agents that run for hours weren't a thing. Max was designed for heavy chat usage, that's it. > Since then, we bundled Claude Code into Max and it took off after Opus 4. Cowork landed. Long-running async agents are now everyday workflows. The way people actually use a Claude subscription has changed fundamentally. > Engagement per subscriber is way up. We've made small adjustments along the way (weekly caps, tighter limits at peak), but usage has changed a lot and our current plans weren't built for this. > So we're looking at different options to keep delivering a great experience for users. We don't know exactly what those look like yet - that's what we're testing and getting feedback on right now. > When we do land on something, if it affects existing subscribers you'll get plenty of notice before anything changes. Will hear it from us, not a screenshot on X or Reddit. https://x.com/TheAmolAvasare/status/2046724659039932830 https://x.com/TheAmolAvasare/status/2046724659039932830 --- Personally I love how they have increased everyone's quotas to counteract the Opus 4.7 tokenizer change a few days ago, but are immediately regretting it and trying to cut off subscription users. If the subscriptions are unprofitable, then just communicate honestly, raise the price or lower limits for new subscribers transparently, and grandfather in existing users. That's what GLM coding plan is doing and it works fine for them. Don't ruin your reputation with opaque messaging and hidden changes. Lol

wrxd 6mo ago
What does it mean that they’re running a test? If you’re one of the unlucky 2% you need to pay more?
- wobfan 6mo ago
  Usually A/B testing is just on the surface, and when you actually subscribe you get the "better" terms of the possible options. Like, they're just advertising different terms to test how many people would still click on it and very likely start the subscription process, but after they click they go back to the usual terms. Changing the whole payment flow, account models and permissions in their backend just for a quick test is usually too much work. But yes, basically, if you're B and not A, and B has objectively worse terms than A, then you're just unlucky. But this is the essence of A/B tests. They are done by basically every company everytime, because it's the most straightforward and simple way to test new terms or designs.
  - muwtyhg 6mo ago
    I don't think anyone is questioning the idea of A/B testing in general, but we are confused how it works in practice when you are advertising a service. Can you give me an example of this happening elsewhere? Or are you saying it's so normalized that there would be no record or news articles about it, and this only is newsworthy because "AI"? I have never heard of a company intentionally advertising less features to only some of their customers to see if they'll still bite. And we still have no actual confirmation that Claude is giving people who fall into that 2% of testers the full service, as opposed to the advertised one.
rideontime 6mo ago
If it’s just a “test,” why did they update the documentation?
thousand_nights 6mo ago
big fan of A/B tests that dehumanize the consumer into some kind of money making lab rat funnel whose only purpose is to be experimented on how you can extract more money out of it peak siliconbromaxxing
- m3kw9 6mo ago
  But they have red ethical redlines bs
- wobfan 6mo ago
  While I feel the same way, this is nothing new at all. Basically every company does this and it's a totally normal way to test new profit models. Has been done for decades. People acting surprised here really need to get on with reality.
- chamomeal 6mo ago
  Stage 2 of enshittification. A necessary prerequisite to full enshittification is lock-in, so be on the lookout for it!
dallen33 6mo ago
Actual lies - the documentation was changed.
NitpickLawyer 6mo ago
MS paused Copilot subscriptions because they don't have enough capacity. Anthropic is trying to confuse new users and literally don't want 20$/mo because they don't have enough capacity. Seems like there's a trend here. A lot of people in scaling threads were saying that capacity projections and DC buildouts were "fantasy" a few years ago. Not so much anymore...
rzk 6mo ago
> If the subscriptions are unprofitable, then just communicate honestly, raise the price or lower limits for new subscribers transparently, and grandfather in existing users. This. Why do so many companies fail to get this? Anthropic's user base, in particular, is intelligent enough to understand their constraints.
- stingraycharles 6mo ago
  I mean, if you look at the Claude subreddits, the general consensus is that Anthropic and OpenAI are money hungry corporate devils that are here to enslave all of us, and everyone should get unlimited everything on Max x20. I think you may be overestimating the willingness of people to understand Anthropic’s concerns.
  - meta_gunslinger 6mo ago
    Reddit is a very small subsection of the Internet consisting mainly of basement-dweller radical leftist they/thems. We should not be taking them as a representative sample of the average Anthropic user.
    - sweezyjeezy 6mo ago
      Ironic that you are talking about unrepresentative samples while characterizing Reddit users that way. Reddit is a huge subsection of the internet, over a billion monthly active users. It covers basically all strata of western society you can think of.
      - verdverm 6mo ago
        They seem to count unregistered users in the D/W/MAU, but even so the producer / consumer of content ratio across social media still stands. What you read is a subsection of all visitors to Reddit, which follows the power law.
      - meta_gunslinger 6mo ago
        Are you counting the fakes and the bots? Moreover, as sibling pointed out, content creator != visitor. If Reddit was a representative sample of reality, all governments in the West would have been ran by gay race Communists.

wrxd 6mo ago

What does it mean that they’re running a test? If you’re one of the unlucky 2% you need to pay more?

wobfan 6mo ago
Usually A/B testing is just on the surface, and when you actually subscribe you get the "better" terms of the possible options. Like, they're just advertising different terms to test how many people would still click on it and very likely start the subscription process, but after they click they go back to the usual terms. Changing the whole payment flow, account models and permissions in their backend just for a quick test is usually too much work. But yes, basically, if you're B and not A, and B has objectively worse terms than A, then you're just unlucky. But this is the essence of A/B tests. They are done by basically every company everytime, because it's the most straightforward and simple way to test new terms or designs.
- muwtyhg 6mo ago
  I don't think anyone is questioning the idea of A/B testing in general, but we are confused how it works in practice when you are advertising a service. Can you give me an example of this happening elsewhere? Or are you saying it's so normalized that there would be no record or news articles about it, and this only is newsworthy because "AI"? I have never heard of a company intentionally advertising less features to only some of their customers to see if they'll still bite. And we still have no actual confirmation that Claude is giving people who fall into that 2% of testers the full service, as opposed to the advertised one.

rideontime 6mo ago

If it’s just a “test,” why did they update the documentation?

thousand_nights 6mo ago

big fan of A/B tests that dehumanize the consumer into some kind of money making lab rat funnel whose only purpose is to be experimented on how you can extract more money out of it peak siliconbromaxxing

m3kw9 6mo ago
But they have red ethical redlines bs
wobfan 6mo ago
While I feel the same way, this is nothing new at all. Basically every company does this and it's a totally normal way to test new profit models. Has been done for decades. People acting surprised here really need to get on with reality.
chamomeal 6mo ago
Stage 2 of enshittification. A necessary prerequisite to full enshittification is lock-in, so be on the lookout for it!

dallen33 6mo ago

Actual lies - the documentation was changed.

NitpickLawyer 6mo ago

MS paused Copilot subscriptions because they don't have enough capacity. Anthropic is trying to confuse new users and literally don't want 20$/mo because they don't have enough capacity. Seems like there's a trend here. A lot of people in scaling threads were saying that capacity projections and DC buildouts were "fantasy" a few years ago. Not so much anymore...

rzk 6mo ago

> If the subscriptions are unprofitable, then just communicate honestly, raise the price or lower limits for new subscribers transparently, and grandfather in existing users. This. Why do so many companies fail to get this? Anthropic's user base, in particular, is intelligent enough to understand their constraints.

stingraycharles 6mo ago
I mean, if you look at the Claude subreddits, the general consensus is that Anthropic and OpenAI are money hungry corporate devils that are here to enslave all of us, and everyone should get unlimited everything on Max x20. I think you may be overestimating the willingness of people to understand Anthropic’s concerns.
- meta_gunslinger 6mo ago
  Reddit is a very small subsection of the Internet consisting mainly of basement-dweller radical leftist they/thems. We should not be taking them as a representative sample of the average Anthropic user.
  - sweezyjeezy 6mo ago
    Ironic that you are talking about unrepresentative samples while characterizing Reddit users that way. Reddit is a huge subsection of the internet, over a billion monthly active users. It covers basically all strata of western society you can think of.
    - verdverm 6mo ago
      They seem to count unregistered users in the D/W/MAU, but even so the producer / consumer of content ratio across social media still stands. What you read is a subsection of all visitors to Reddit, which follows the power law.
    - meta_gunslinger 6mo ago
      Are you counting the fakes and the bots? Moreover, as sibling pointed out, content creator != visitor. If Reddit was a representative sample of reality, all governments in the West would have been ran by gay race Communists.