[BitMastro]

I would like to thank you for creating go read and making it open source, it's what I use as RSS reader, using my own free quota of App Engine. I hope I can contribute back some day.

  "30-day trial: This action cost me about 90% of my users. Many were angry and cursed at me on twitter. I agree that it is sad I did not say I was going to charge from the beginning, but I didn't know that I would be paying hundreds of dollars per month either."

Honestly I think the sense of entitlement nowadays is way too high, people use a product that is free and needed weeks or months of your own free time, and then complain about it when you change it.

If you decide to charge for it, you're a greedy bastard, instead if it's free, they say "if you aren't paying, you are the product". Other complain that the product doesn't work, when instead it's a case of PEBCAK. When it's not, it means you're going to say goodbye to a couple of night's sleep or a weekend or too, or maybe it's ONE feature away from being perfect (again).

...sometimes I hate people :(

[Ntrails]

People get to be mad (within reason) when a free service stops being free without prior warning. Because they too invested time and effort in a product, making it part of their life, only to have that wasted when terms change.

That is not to say, in any way, that you shouldn't charge - but don't expect users of a free application to change to a pay to use model en masse. Unless, of course, you don't have any competitors who do a similar thing for free...

[BitMastro]

True, but be polite about it: "Sorry, I'm disappointed because my expectations differ from yours. I'll found an alternative. Good luck with your project"

[deeviant]

Having to pay a few dollars a month is hardly a trigger for calling something "wasted"... In my own humble opinion.

[MrMeker]

"Honestly I think the sense of entitlement nowadays is way too high, people use a product that is free and needed weeks or months of your own free time"

How is he going to recoup anything for his time if you use his product in a way he can't charge for?

[BitMastro]

Sometime we spend time on a project for the good of the community, and it's ok, because sometimes I give back time, sometimes someone else does and so on.

It's also ok to try to get some money out of your time, if it's desired.

Not ok: use someone else's time to gain personal profit, expect someone else to pay for your actions, etc

[dilap]

The transition wasn't handled very gracefully...

I was an early user, and one day I went to read my feeds, only to be greeted with very curt "trial expired" screen.

That was the first indication of any form I'd had the service was going pay-to-play.

I wasn't upset, but I could see how someone would be -- it was just a very abrupt, almost rude, way to communicate the change.

(Caveat: All from memory. Memory is unreliable, so take w/ salt.)