Disappointing to see you doubled your premium service price today.

problem
#41

I use Newsblur everyday for more than just a RSS reader service, I depend on it to organize articles and links that I write about every day. It is a necessity for me…and one I would continue to pay 24 bucks for!

I especially want to keep from being inundated by advertisements and other promotional gimmicks, I had enough of that crap over at Google.

All the other replacement RSS reader services are nothing compared to NewsBlur, and I would be devastated if Simon caved in to a bunch of people who wanted a quality service he is offering for “free.”

It is obvious to me that they are here for one reason only, the other free services did not meet with their standards…

The suggestion up top offering 6 months at $12 and a year and $24 is a good idea. It gives people an option, but I must say lifetime plans are a ridiculous notion. Who wants to do a job and only get paid once for it? As long as the service is good and it is consistent, pay the two bucks a month and get on with it!

Samuel, please keep up the good work, and don’t give in…your time, efforts and your Newsblur service is worth it.

1 Like
#42

I just wanted to post to let Sam know that not all Dan Herman(n)s dislike newsblur. This one chose it over Feedly for many reasons.

#43

I wouldn’t touch Feedly. I tried it out. It’s a freaking mess. It’s not designed for people trying to get work done.

What I want is what Newsblur seems to offering: Reliability, as close to 100% uptime as possible, and I’ll assume that they have back-up and the means to get providing their service if connectivity is lost, a data center goes down, a line is cut, etc.

For those who want free, there is always free. But as in all things, you get exactly what you pay for.

1 Like
#44

I only paid $12 when I signed up because I didn’t know if it would work or not. Now that I know it does work, I’d easily pay the $24-36 for it. I actually donated $12 via bitcoin some time ago even though I already had a premium account.

1 Like
#45

So go for feedly if you don’t think it is important. Go for newsblur if you really depend on the service. Google Reader taught me to pay for things I like or find important.

#46

I’ve had a Google Reader tab open all day on every electronic device I use (desktop, laptop, app on phone, etc) for what I would guess would be the past six or seven years. Every day, all day. I figured Google was monetizing that in some way, much like their many other “free” services I use - mail, search, voice, etc.

When it was coming to an end, I tried a few services - The Old Reader (a close second, which is now running into it’s own existence issues), Feedly (distant third), and a few others.

NewsBlur isn’t perfect - the mobile app (Android) still leaves a LOT to be desired. The 14 day limit is too short. Sometimes it’s a little slow to load the “Text” view of feeds. I wish there was a way to “Mark articles older than a day as read”, etc. That being said, it’s still by far my favorite replacement RSS reader. In some ways, it’s better than Google Reader. In some ways, it’s worse. One substantial way it’s DIFFERENT is it isn’t run by a multi-billion dollar company monetizing it through advertising, data mining, etc.

With that in mind, when it came time to decide on my permanent Google Reader replacement, I upgraded from my free account to a paid account. I even went as far as to go with the $36\year, because I feel there is great, GREAT value in a quality RSS reader. If you feel there is value in a quality RSS service and you really like NewsBlur, then chip in a couple bucks a month. Sam works off a different business model than Google or Feedly and it requires our support. I’m not a huge fan of subscription services, but at the same time I understand when you’re running a service, reliably calculating your annual income vs expenditure to maintain the service is important, and for a small, self managed service like NewsBlur, probably a necessity.

If you don’t find a substantial value in an RSS reader, than you probably aren’t all that picky about how it operates, and something free like Feedly might work well for you.

/rant

2 Likes
#47

Heh, if newsblur appealed to you feedly might be a hard fit. I looked at it but the information presentation just wasn’t dense enough. Kinda like pulse though pulse was slightly more tolerable. I also tried currents but it’s not “linky” enough for me.

#48

As we know from Google and Facebook, when the service is free, what they are really selling is … you. They are monetizing your data, search patterns, interests, and habits. Someone else is paying and you are the product. No, thanks.

Samuel is doing a lovely job here under stress and I would pay more than I did for the quality of service. Now that he has given me search, I will be content to shut up and enjoy. Thanks.

#49

This is by the far the best reader replacement I have found. They are working to upgrade capacity to handle the crush, and I would pay more if I had to, just so I have a working usable feed reader. FYI - one that is very similar in operation to the late lamented Google Reader (RIP).

#50

I’m honestly curious to see how the whole thing shakes out. I don’t see how an ad based news aggregator can work for any but the largest company. The newspaper and magazine creators often survive off ads. And are always going to want to spiff up their look and feel, incorporate media, link to their own stuff, etc…

I don’t think they’ll be able to keep up. It’s the same problem I had with some of the podcast apps - they’re never as up to date as the source feed. I’m figuring all that overhead they add on top of the feed has something to do with it…

#51

Oh dear $45 for feedly premium.

#52

It would seem he has temporarily suspended the free and cheapest premium accounts to reduce the number of sign-ups and give him a better chance of getting the service working - a dead service would probably reduce sign ups more than a tiny fee.

5 Likes
#53

I think the 3$/month is totally reasonable personally. Even from a long-term point-of-view. I’d, personally, pay a hell of a lot more to have a 100% working service right now (Not that I’m implying that Samuel isn’t doing everything he can to handle this crushing onslaught).

Limiting free accounts and cheaper-paid ones seems like a totally reasonable restriction to me.

7 Likes
#54

Can’t expect him to add the additional resources without some additional cost. What’s an extra dollar a month anyway?

4 Likes
#55

He’s using the price increase as a tactic to cool down the number of new users signing up so the servers will still be able to provide service to current users. I’m sure he will switch the pricing back when the storm passes. So keep tight and come back soon.

3 Likes
#56

I went through and fixed the numbers on the homepage. I also boosted the free account back up to 64 feeds. Now the only missing price point is $12, which will eventually come back when I can handle the crushing load.

3 Likes
#57

It’s not. I am much more able to run NewsBlur when it brings in enough money to pay for itself. This has become clear. While I am losing a small percentage of users who choose not to pay $12, I end up making more revenue with people who are willing to pay the full $24. That puts NewsBlur in a better position to last a long time.

4 Likes