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I agree with the parent, I love exercism and although not a daily user I am surprised by this announcement.

I hope you would consider a "hard sell" banner ad for donations in the vein of Wikipedia before giving up on the model. I wonder if there are a lot of potential donors out there who would respond if they understood the stakes.

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Yes. Like others here, I did not know there was a paid Insiders tier. Just nudging free users with a “consider becoming an insider” hard sell splash screen upon each login with a 10 second countdown would go a long way towards encouraging users to join Insiders and might be enough to avoid going the ad route. Then you are still offering a free option but I think lots will sign up.

Redesign the donate/payment page for clarity. Enable Apple Pay to reduce friction.

They definitely should consult with monetization gurus. Building useful product does not lead to paid users

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