I’m pro supporting devs (I’m also one myself), but I’m even more anti-subscription for software. I’d 100% buy a lifetime subscription for $20, however, $100 for a mobile app is insane in my opinion. The developer can set their prices how they please though, and I’ll continue using the ad supported version until the price comes down.

We’re not saddling bad choices on anyone. We waste so many tax dollars on corporate bailouts while allowing corporations massive tax breaks and we still don’t have the money to provide food and shelter to the vulnerable of our society? Somehow we never have money for helping individuals, but the second a corporation needs anything the money is magically there. We’re the wealthiest country on Earth by a fucking mile and we somehow cannot afford to not let people die in the street because they got dealt a fucked up hand in life, or had unavoidable medical debt, or didn’t have anyone to teach them finances because our education system sure as fuck didnt. Letting people die in poverty isn’t the morally right just because they didn’t have the opportunities or luck you did.

Do you have any idea how many people have 0 debt or kids and still can’t even afford to save for retirement because wages are ass and living is expensive, let alone at 19? I grew up surrounded by poverty, and I’ve seen first hand how inescapable it is. I’m extremely lucky in that I had my family to support me through college and allow me to make more money than I can even fathom at 23.

I’m making all the right choices currently. I’m maxing out retirement, saving for my future, and paying 35% of my income in taxes to the government to just give to a few billionaires so they can become richer instead of helping those who actually need it. Just because I’ve got mine doesn’t mean I’m gonna say fuck you to everyone else. I want to help people who are less fortunate, not pull the ladder up behind me.

Our country is a fucking joke for the poor and vulnerable of our society, and we should be doing so much better, but we aren’t because some dickwad needs another billion dollars.

100% agree. The few times I have to turn off uBlock because it is breaking some obscure website it is always an awful experience. Auto-playing videos, ads taking up half the screen, and those annoying as fuck cookie banners. I can’t imagine using the internet without an ad/cookie blocker. I accidentally turned it off on Lemmy for a while and it was the only site that I didn’t immediately notice.

My primary issue with Connect at the moment is it desperately needs a reduction in the amount of taps to do anything. It takes 3 to download an image, and 4 to subscribe to communities. Both of these are things I feel should be in the ellipsis menu of any post, but currently you have to click through to the post or community. Meanwhile there are a dozen things in there I rarely use absolut flooding the menu. I also wish it saved comment drafts, but that is relatively minor.

It just needs some reprioritizing of actions and it would be perfect IMO.

I was super into piracy when I was ~12, but as Netflix took over and you could get everything you want with 2-3 subscriptions totalling <$20 per month I eventually stopped because it was easier, a much better experience, and worth the money. Now that there are too many services to count guess who has an RPi BitTorrent/Plex server? I’d prefer to go back to the old Netflix way of things as it’s so much easier, but there isn’t any option more convenient than my current setup.

If I could pay $50 a month and get everything I want content-wise I would, but I cannot. Not counting that half the subscription services are awful to use, or are missing major portions of series,. I’ve even started pirating content I pay for access to because I don’t have to deal with DRM bullshit.

With Steam though I’ll pirate a game, and if I like it I’ll go buy it because it’s a better experience. Gaben is 100% correct that you have to provide a better experience than pirates, otherwise why would anyone pay for a worse experience?