This question just came to me while I was buying a subway pass. It’s priced very well, provides a very good service, doesn’t suffer from enshittification, and its price increases very rarely.
What are some other services which people don’t mind subscribing to?
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Electricity and water. Those actually have a real cost to provide, unlike software
Debrid services
I honestly think there are very few things that make sense as a subscription service. Basically all software that runs on your computer (Adobe, Office, etc) make 0 sense being a subscription. Honestly, most web software could just be made to run on your computer. Things like email, cloud storage, phone service, that have ongoing non-development related costs make sense.
Media is the worst offender. Just let me pay for a download and watch/listen to something.
Cloud storage makes no sense at all. You’re better off creating your own server in your house.
Oh no, your house just burnt down. Now all your data is gone.
I think web browsers would make sense as a subscription. The battle to keep them secure is intense and always ongoing. I think Firefox and Chrome should be subscriptions, while free browsers should have a drastically reduced feature set.
Even though it would be one way to make Mozilla self-sustainable, it would open a pandora box of different problems. Would free-versions continue receiving security updates? Would access to some websites be locked behind the premium version? It’s a dangerous idea.
By “free browsers” I didn’t mean “free versions”. I’m thinking more along the lines of Pale Moon or Konqueror (in it’s early days), third-party FOSS browsers with limited features.
I’m not against supporting a software in a recurring form but the web browser is essentially the lock and key of accessing the entirery of what exists outside your machine.
That would garner an immense power to whichever entity developing one. Remember Microsoft and the IE case.
Firefox is not perfect and apparently on a downwards spiral but what made it stand out was because it wanted to be free and for all. Chrome is far from being a good thing.
Our art museum is free but for 100/yr we used to get a subscription that got us 4 free tickets per day to visiting exhibits that are normally $16 each, plus free parking which is normally $10 and it’s across the street from a big park with food trucks and activities.
Also, the zoo and botanical garden memberships that offer reciprocity with a bunch of other zoos or gardens.
Dropout.tv Great content, rewards creative talent, more than fair price
What shows do you recommend? I watched the first episode of Very Important People a while ago and it was fun
Game Changer is their flagship show, and has been consistently great at reinventing itself and surprising season after season. It’s a game show where the game is different every time and the contestants have to try and figure out what’s going on. It goes places.
If you enjoy long form TTRPG, they have dozens of Dimension 20 campaigns with all kinds of settings and genres.
Smartypants is a show where comedians get to give PowerPoint presentations on anything they want.
Play It By Ear is a personal fave - each episode is an entirely improvised musical, which feels like an incredible magic trick when they pull it off.
Um, Actually is a nerdy quiz show where contestants have to interrupt the host with factual corrections about video games, anime, sci-fi, etc.
Gastronauts is a cooking challenge show with professional chefs trying to fulfil unhinged requests from comedians.
There’s way more on there besides all that, but thought I’d share some highlights.
They sound like a blast, thank you so much for the recs!
Make Some Noise for me is always peak.
Definitely GameChanger and Make Some Noise. Although, Make Some Noise starts off pretty mid in my opinion.
Mail provider. There are very cheap and privacy friendly options. Like 1 euro pr. month.
Similarly I always think that a domain name with unlimited mail forwarding addresses (aka aliases) is amazing; a .eu domain costs me around 6-7€ a year with Bookmyname - old timey interface but all I need it for is to add more and more aliases :)
Which service do you use to have the alias? I use mailbox.org but the number of alias are limited.
I use the mail service included with the domain at Bookmyname, they give you 2GB that you can split between multiple mail accounts, and unlimited aliases that can also send (they are called Identities in K9mail and other programs, you have to add them to send).
The aliases still end with your domain name - for more privacy you can nest them for example one alias to receive simplelogin mails, another for 33mail, ecc.
BTW mailbox.org is a great choice too, probably simpler to use but it costs a bit more.
