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Comment by siegers | Hacker News Reader

(co-founder)

Thanks for the comment and very valid points. When we initially started building we had subscription plans and more of a general revenue model. Over time we transitioned to the donation-based approach. We are open to revisiting the former if there is interest (and feedback) in the existing functionality or newer updates. I definitely understand the concern of "free forever" and open to input.

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I would charge for syncing like obsidian does. You can set up your own syncing, but you can also pay to not have to do that and let you handle it. Especially syncing projects that multiple people have access to can be a pain. If you have a decent solution for it you should charge for it.

Thank you for the feedback! This route is definitely something for us to consider.

Given your model, consider publishing a time-to-live metric: if you get no further donations, this is how long the service will last.

Then people who care about 1 month, 1 year, or 10 years can decide accordingly.

And also describe the processes for extracting data, etc.

Finally, talk about your motivations. You raise the issue by pricing at $0 without addressing the concerns that raises, in a era when "free" means the user is the product and when LLM's are a giant content vacuum that copies without attribution.

This great feedback - thank you. I like the idea of the TTL. That's interesting if we continue on the current route. Similar to the "open start up" concept and publishing available runway, etc.

An addition could be a "bounty program" - let donors choose what features to "boost" (prioritize development on). That gives donors a tangible benefit and a feeling of community / ownership, as they can help guide the project in multiple ways.

Need to look at the site more in general to see if it's for me, but just a note - https://www.lowercase.app/pricing/ still references the subscription model.

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