I am pleased to pay for the things I use, even if I don’t get any benefits for it - it’s still a pleasure to pay. I was not always like that, but I spent most of my life trying to find and use only free software. Therefore, one of the first Macintosh programs that I loved was the wonderful Quicksilver, a free application manager with many other functions.

I spent countless hours studying this program and trying to squeeze the last drop of functionality out of it, and thanks to sites like 43folders.com I learned all the hidden options. I mean, I owned this utility at the guru level.

Then, like many other free programs, Quicksilver died a slow death *.

When Quicksilver went missing, I paid for the LaunchBar license and lived on **. It is not cheap: $ 35, but this money gives developers a reason not to stop the development of the program - it becomes a real business instead of a favorite hobby.
')
I paid for Tweetie, and later for Tweetie 2, not only because it was the best twitter client, but also because I could pay. I had the opportunity to pay and help the developers. What happened to Tweetie, however, can be a great example of how fragile free software really is.

When Twitter bought Tweetie and renamed it to Twitter for iPhone, everything looked fine, and Loren Brichter also remained as lead programmer. I think that the last few weeks have taught us all one lesson - it is difficult to force changes in the free program.

Before the Tweetie became free, users paid because Brichter needed this money and everyone was happy, so the author of the program had a normal business. Then the program became free and everything changed.

When Twitter released Quickbar - a translucent panel known by the gentle name #dickbar - users started a revolution by imposing on them "promoted trends" and intrusive objects that are mixed with the main user content. If Twitter for iPhone was still called Tweetie and sold for money, I can assure you that Brychter would remove this Quickbar immediately and discuss all aspects of this problem with users.

Program rating affects the number of sales much more than the number of downloads, if it is free.

Instead, Twitter quietly rolled out an update that made the Quickbar panel a little less annoying ***. I think at that moment everyone saw the fragility of the free as I see it.

The fragility of free is a catchy term that explains what happens when free money runs out. More precisely, when investors / founders / venture capitalists run out of money, or patience, or both. Because at some stage, Twitter and all other companies have to move from “charity” to “business” - or, in other words, from spending an insanely large amount of money to earning a little more than they spend.

At this moment we begin to see the fragility of the free system. Programs that have never been advertised receive advertising. Programs that were free are starting to take a monthly fee. We all saw this before with hundreds of services, many of which have already ceased to exist.

Once again, I want to pay for the service, and this is why:

one

When you pay for software / service in advance, you know how much it will cost. This may seem obvious, but imagine that the developers of your favorite Alfred App will decide that the only way to continue development is to start taking money for the program. It will not be very nice.

What if Google decides to charge for Gmail tomorrow? How much would you like to pay? And do not think that they can not do this, they can. The fact is that when a developer sets a fee from day one, he sets a price that will support him until sales exceed a certain level. Most users will not even know about this program until sales have exceeded this level. It can be assumed that in the future the developer will lower the price rather than raise it.

And in the case of the Alfred App or something similar, at some point the developers may decide that they needed money and start taking $ 5, this will not be enough, they will start taking $ 8, then $ 10, and so on. The problem is that they do not want to take money and suffer because of this, but they need this money and will have to take it. Instead of setting a price of $ 10 from the first day, they wait until it is too late.

2

Continuing the example with Gmail, imagine that Google will count and it turns out that Gmail brings only losses - and the company decides to close this service. No matter how much you want to pay, in a week he will be gone.

This happens with free software and services, sometimes with even paid services (but much less often). It happens that the free financing and development of the project simply ends. Perhaps it was someone's hobby (a hobby on which you depended) - it does not matter, because now it has disappeared.

3

The two scenarios described above are likely in the future, and they are not very bad. But the third scenario is the worst - the one that Twitter is facing now: the situation “we-need-money-but-we-want-stay-free”.

This is the real awl in the ass.

It doesn’t matter to users whether you are profitable or not, it only matters to them how your financial state will affect them. In the case of Twitter, everything goes to ensure that only official Twitter clients are allowed to broadcast ads in the message flow.

And this is despite the fact that a bunch of users literally scream with requests to provide them with paid accounts. Unfortunately, this choir is also known as a minority.

I say that this is the worst scenario, because it often ends in death from indecision. Everyone wants to create something new and cool instead of using old and proven methods. They are trying to reinvent the wheel. The Twitter options are simple: sell information about users and their content to marketers (unlikely), place ads in every hole (it looks like they are coming to this), take money from users (this reduces the audience, but the rest will be loyal and happy).

Once again, personally, I would pay in advance from day one.

Stabilization free

The only free things that I like and whom I trust are called "beta". Everything else should be paid from the first day - I do not call for charging prices as for Basecamp, but they have the right idea. What good will remain on Twitter in a month, when 20% of the content in the average user’s tape will be advertising?

Will I use it then?

Will you?

I would rather choose a guarantee of a long service life and the lack of advertising, which gives a monthly payment.

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* Later he was revived, but he would never be the same again.
** Here is an episode about tears and other unmanly things.
*** I said “lightly” because she is still scary like my life. I mean, I understand this style - but I don’t understand why if you shake the phone from side to side, it changes. It does not make sense and some kind of absurdity. If you want to change the damn interface, then the last thing that comes to mind is to shake the phone. Just ridiculous.