Pinboard asks lifetime users to convert themselves back to annual paying users | Hacker News Reader

Pinboard asks lifetime users to convert themselves back to annual paying users

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36 points0318ThrowAway13 comments

Original discussion: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26199676

I guess this email will continue to haunt HN, since I have been sending it out in small batches.

Thanks to the many people who have converted over so far. Special thanks to the people who really, really hate subscriptions and therefore chose the 10 year plan.

See you all here next week when someone posts this again.

I was going to post "You just fucked with the wrong dupe detector" but I don't want to shame anybody so will leave that here instead.

Seeing random stuff regularly reposted, spawning nearly verbatim comment threads, is part of the rhythm of the changing seasons on HN, and a welcome sign of spring.

Care to comment on why it's going out in batches?

In a previous thread GP commented that it was to avoid creating a mass public fuss about it and also giving them time to respond to each user and actually understand if users resonated with their reasoning.

All in all, the note is written really well and I appreciate the way they went about it. I think maybe including this reasoning in their email FAQ section would be useful

Because:

1. Gmail won't let me send stuff faster and

2. it gives me a chance to reply to people individually.

What exactly is the GMail "bulk" limit? A friend of mine has struggled to send to his opt-in group because of the GMail spam filtering on large distributions... Would love to know what a reasonable "batch" size (and batch delay) is...

Any particular reason you didn't choose a mailing service for the job? Batching email like that does cost money (at least at Mailchimp), but they do make it their job, so they're pretty good at it. (They also manage unsubscribes automatically, which is important to being a good email citizen.)

Not criticizing; I'm just curious about your decision.

More services need multi-year options, preferably with discounts.

As a 10-year-planner, you're welcome. I do want pinboard.in to continue, even though I would be only mildly inconvenienced if it didn't. But also, I've enjoyed reading some of your blog posts and want you to be able to continue doing stuff like that and writing about it.

I think this is what I thought the Internet would be back in the early 2000s. Lots of sites operated by people who want to make useful stuff without having to report to someone else who doesn't even know he owns a share.

Great service I use for many years. I love how the author is open about the issue, and focuses on users. He would receive financing 100% from VC but than the service could go any other way than users like it.

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