I understand your objection.
The term 'freeloader' was used because they're taking stuff for free with no expectation to pay anything in the future.
Also, an article that attracts discussion is a good thing, right? :)
[edited]
'freeloader' is a subjective term with emphasis on negative: "someone who is a waste of air and takes up valuable space on the planet earth" [1].
But I sure understand the need to be provocative. Also if you are not trying to convert free users into paying then feel free to insult them. If trying to convert them to paying customer then it pays to play nice :-)
Imagine sending e-mail "Hey freeloader, start paying so we can build a valuable product or go away" vs "Hey user. Just wanted to let you know that we thrive to build a valuable product that makes the best sense for you. At the same time it has become hard to manage free user needs together with the needs of premium tier customers. I invite you to upgrade to paid plan to enjoy all the extra magic. Your input has been invaluable and here's a xx discount valid for 1 week. Let me know if you need more time to decide."
[1] http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=freeloader
You set this expectation yourself by offering a free plan, no?
As a young and early stage team, we made some assumptions, and got some stuff wrong. We need to make changes and decisions that can guarantee we create a sustainable business, one where we can keep the lights on :-)
Actually yes, all the beta users who are engaging in conversation with us over this are actually been offered free plans where it's appropriate anyway. i.e. open source projects, developers writing plugins, university/college students, developers testing Trak.io for their employers etc.
And believe me, I couldn't agree with the article more, I was nodding my head vigorously throughout my reading, I bookmarked the article to Evernote as a reference for anyone I talk to about this in the future (and I talk about this with a lot of people, making exactly your arguments).
So I couldn't be more "pro", but I also immediately thought "freeloader is not a nice term". It could just be my "the internets will hate this" spidey-sense, but in this case I think the internets are right - it really is an offensive term in more places.
2014-04-14 @12:34: Original publication
2014-04-14 @17:00: Spelling and grammar fixes
2014-04-15 @13:00: Updated wording to avoid terms potentially seen as insulting
... ... ...
Better yet, include the earlier versions and link to them in that change log. This way you are improving the article yet there is no way (unless you deliberately skip bits in the changelog) people can legitimately accuse you of trying to brush things under the carpet (because everything you edited out to improve things is still there for all to see (and find easily) should they care).
Also make sure you add a message indicating "this is an older version of the article, see link for the latest revision" to the old versions so people coming in to the wrong place from a search result know where best to go.
But yeah I didn't want to have a "meta" discussion and miss the point of the article