All part of the enshittification of the world. I hate where we're going.
this post was submitted on 18 Jun 2023
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Fuck Subscriptions
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Naming and shaming all "recurring spending models" where a one-time fee (or none at all) would be appropriate and logical.
Expect use of strong language.
Follow the basic rules of lemmy.world and common sense, and try to have fun if possible.
No flamewars or attacking other users, unless they're spineless corporate shills.
Note that not all subscriptions are awful. Supporting your favorite ~~camgirl~~ creator or Lemmy server on Patreon is fine. An airbag with subscription is irl Idiocracy-level dystopian bullshit.
New community rule: Shilling for cunty corporations, their subscriptions and other anti-customer practices may result in a 1-day ban. It's so you can think about what it's like when someone can randomly decide what you can and can't use, based on some arbitrary rules. Oh what, you didn't read this fine print? You should read what you're agreeing to.
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Some other groovy communities for those who wish to own their products, their data and their life:
Some other useful links:
Louis Rossman's YouTube channel
Look at content hosted at Big Tech without most of the nonsense:
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I would gladly rent my car if that covered all vehicle repairs and maintenance and insurance.
That's called private lease.
Isn't that always an option? Car companies push that kind of leasing like mad.
Not that I have seen. I have been offered packages that cover the drive train or something similar, but the maintenance is up to me, the insurance is up to me, and that makes for a hell of a car payment each month.
Volvo actually had this very program for a bit. They don't seem to now which tells you how it went...
It's common for fleet leasing but I haven't encountered widespread push for personal lease. It exists as a service but I don't know if I'd call it "pushed like mad".
Maybe I'm out of the loop though, especially globally. It's probably different from country to country.
Well I live in the crappier side of Europe and in the last 10 or so years, this kind of car leasing have been more popular even for individuals. I was under the impressions the trend came from the west, cause I remember learning about it in high school when it wasn't much of a thing here yet.
I am so in favor to actually owning something instead of renting it for years.
Subscriptions are such a pain, I just keep things simple. If I can buy and own a product I pay for it, if I have to choose between paying for a subscription or getting the product for free, I choose owning the product for free. The only services that I pay for are things that are more services than products, example: VPNs.
@WhoRoger Thanks to Adobe shitheads!!!
Also the only subscription that I can stand is Humble Choice which let me keep the games that they give on my Steam account. So if I cancel I don't loose them.
I keep HBO MAX for the sole reason that they have newly released films. So is cheaper ($8 monthly) that paying for a cinema ticket.
Golly I remember when Adobe came up with that shit, everyone was up in arms about it.
If only professionals had enough foresight to reject that, maybe we wouldn't be so deep down in subscription hell.
TBH, I'm quite happy with the Affinity alternatives, although I never used Lightroom and I guess that's the hardest to replace for the average user
@lol3droflxp @WhoRoger I also use the entire Affinity suite. In case of Lightroom some friends have told me that they love to use DarkTable which is a close substitute.
DarkTable is really good, I encourage anyone to give it a try.
keep the games
Steam account
Hmm
There are some services I pay for using a subscription service. My password manager, because my whole family uses it. Various streaming services, mostly because they have stopped providing physical media and have now created a monopoly on their content. But that's it. I used to pay for PathFinder, a Mac Finder replacement. I would happily upgrade my license on every major release because it was a perpetual license. When they switched to a subscription model, I just stopped.
What I think these companies don't understand is that keeping track of a bunch of subscriptions results in a huge cognitive load. Not only do I have to keep track of which prices are fair relative to many other similar services, I have to keep track of when they renew so I'm not taken by surprise. In most cases, not having to deal with that cognitive load is a better deal for me than the service they're offering.
Yea I'm not against any and all subscriptions in principle. When I was taxi driving, having unlimited music on Spotify was totally worth it and a great upgrade over radio. I even had Audible for a while, where you get one book a month to keep (DRM aside, which can be dealt with), so you know exactly what you're getting.
The major problem is how much everyone is pushing subs now for every stupid thing, how markers are fracturing and worst of all, with most services once you subscribe, you take a massive hit and lose everything you've paid for until then - such as with the game passes. So one can only keep sucking up the ever increasing prices, further fragmentation and be at the provider's mercy whether the thing even keeps going at all.
There was this neat, but totally unnecessary 'water cooled' mattress cover thing I stumbled on. It had a series of tubes they ran water through to keep your bed cool at night. Nifty little product. They also had an app and built in sensors for that sleep tracking stuff. Also neat and a nice value add.
Except that the app required a subscription and you could only adjust the temperature through the app. Oh and the subscription was $250/year. Talk about bullshit. You know they're already selling all the sleep tracking data and then they want you to rent the product forever on top of that??
Only tangentially related, but that’s identical technology in cooling suits designed for use under some kinds of protective wear.
https://www.batteryheatedclothing.com/cooling-vests/whole-body-ice-water-circulating-cooling-suit/