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by solarkraft 1749 days ago
The subscription not being optional ("We don't make the subscription optional at this time", https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=28351035), with unspecified consequences of not having one.

One thing I definitely gather from that comment is that E-Mails wouldn't work, which appears to be the main selling point of the device.
1 comments
gsreenivas 1749 days ago
There is an ongoing cost for email to work (static IP, DNS, tunneling for traffic) - this is why there is a subscription. It's not very complicated or malicious.

If a customer doesn't want a subscription, they can still use the Helm on their local network and get access to all their data. Running without a subscription is not something we currently support because of a lot of variables that can prevent email from working consistently, creating a heavy support burden (which is costly) along with bad customer experiences. It's best for people wary of a subscription to go down the DIY path (and we end up with a lot of DIY switchers once they realize how much effort it is).

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carderne 1749 days ago
So it sounds like if you are acquired/close shop/triple your fees, the hardware will continue working with a limited feature set forever. If HN-type people are at all your target market, I’d make this a lot clearer somewhere. After the umpteenth time, people are wary of hardware that randomly turns into bricks. It’s got nothing to do with “big tech”.
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solarkraft 1749 days ago
> Running without a subscription is not something we currently support because of a lot of variables that can prevent email from working consistently

No problem. I see the technical difficulties with that and that you don’t want to support it. But is it possible?

If you want peoples’ (definitely mine) trust I’d suggest clearly decoupling the subscription from the device and communicating that it’s only for the E-Mail routing.

Otherwise it feels like renting a device with some extra initial cost, which is like 20% as good as actually owning something (If I’m already renting just take away the setup cost and make it 12$/mo).

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