Please update your front page. It says the free version supports “64 sites” - the limit is actually 12 and it is a bummer to learn once you actually get to use the service. I understand you might be under heavy load because people are looking for alternatives to G Reader, but please don’t lie.
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The limit was 64 up until yesterday. Now existing accounts got downgraded to 12 as well. While you are free to change rules on your site whenever you want I would expect that big of a change to be announced everywhere with big red text for at least 2 weeks prior. If you did I might have gotten paid version, but you chose to break people’s feeds and then ask them to pay? That’s completely unprofessional.
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Don’t attribute to malice what can be explained by desperation to keep a service running under the flood of new users reacting to the Google Reader announcement.
Samuel is normally very open and up front about how NewsBlur works and changes that are being made. Give him a bit of leniency in this situation…
I wouldn’t have created an account if I had known about the new limit. So yes, this HAD to be announced in the home page.
Now I have given permissions to access my Google account to an external site for nothing. That’s definitely not funny.
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The problem is not the limit, even if it was 1-2 sites.
I guess you can’t or do not want to understand my point so I won’t waste any more time trying to explain it.
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Came here to sign up after reading about it on reddit / hacker news, read this thread, saw the issues with no-notice restriction changes, left in disappointment.
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I know Martin, I have installed the Android version to have a full feel for it, and I am also trying other alternatives before deciding wich one to use.
BTW, it looks really nice for now but I will wait for Samuel to say something before deciding, as I would probably go for the premium account.
I hope that you’re not Mr. Clay, because being rude and misinformed is not a good way to attract customers…
Fortunately I’m not, no, so I can be as rude as I want. My intention wasn’t to be rude though, just realistic about the situation.
I guess you can’t or do not want to understand the situation that the developer was placed in overnight.
So, this is very sad. 
But I support paying for NewsBlur!
If a local business says “free car wash today!”, and you show up just to have them say “sorry, we’re busier than anticipated, we’re only going to wash your hood and then off you go”, you’d be frustrated.
I don’t think the O.P. has a problem with the 12 feed limit, but the front page should be changed to reflect the new limit. That’s all.
If you’re asking yourself where the traffic ist coming from… https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=…
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It’s a temporary limit to get past this crazy influx of users. He went from 1.5k free users to 19k overnight. Something had to be done to keep the servers alive. Give him a few days to build up the servers and the limit be reset.
I understand that. And as I said I even accept that. But *communication* is a key element on getting customer trust - especially on new customers. How hard it is to write a blurb “We have a limit of 64 feeds for non-paying users. Currently as we experience heavy traffic this limit is lowered to 12 for the time being.”?
Do you honestly believe that a one man operation had the time to think of anything beyond “gotta keep the servers running” ? He probably went to sleep jittery from worry about the server crashing while he’s passed out.
Hindsight is always 20/20 and everyone is a professional marketer when they aren’t the one in the hot seat.
We haven’t even hit the 24 hour mark yet. He hasn’t had time to plan anything yet in order to give us timelines.
If a local business offered a free car wash and the demand was so large that the line ran down the street and all the cars in it couldn’t be washed in a day, would you complain on a message board or just go about your day not worrying about the free car wash you missed out on?
Under your analogy, NewsBlur would have to put up a front page that says “not accepting new users at this time”. I don’t want that to happen, I wish the devs well with their new-found user base. Just take the time to change two characters on the front page and we’re all set.
By the way, I’m not complaining, I’m just defending the O.P., who I feel has a perfectly legitimate point.
Yes, i do in fact believe that a developer can spare a few seconds to tell people what he’s doing. I’m a developer. He probably just forgot to update the main page after being overworked.
It’s perfectly understandable, but that doesn’t mean it isn’t a mistake, and it doesn’t mean he shouldn’t update it as soon as he can. You are allowed to make mistakes in life without being thrown into a fire, but you can’t tell me not to notice them.