Well, I for one, am truly grateful they did implement Plex HTPC.
The HTPC market is a dead one (thanks to streaming) so I was surprised Plex did create the Plex HTPC side project and it has had resources thrown at it. Moreso with their focus on content aggregation.
The core group of HTPC diehards on this forum were very grateful that the phoenix arose. I still remember that thread and many posts.
The 20% layoff is manageable, especially with what is after all a small company really. The large multinational I worked for had a couple of 10-20% staff layoffs over the more than 4 decades I worked for them. The product offering wasn’t impacted and in fact innovation occurred.
With Plex, a refocus has been discussed by many on here for years so with the post Covid financial impacts on companies, I am surprised why some posting are doing so with so much doom and gloom.
I never said that Plex, in it’s current form is a scam. What I’m saying is that if they change the deal to require more payment for the services I have already paid for under the lifetime membership they chose to offer would be at the very least ethically a scam. I didn’t twist their arm to make that offer.
And I don’t use much of their licensing, either. I primarily use it as a tuner/dvr for over the air broadcasting & accessing my own CD collection, which is stored on hard drives locally. The only lic. fee they might have is the guide.
Since I incur little expense, I would be rather aggrieved if they put an additional paywall up for the services I use.
I know, it sounds like I’m pissed at Plex for some reason. That’s not it.
I am sick and tired of companies changing the rules to benefit themselves and their stockholders. Just to list well-known example, does anyone else remember back when Amazon Prime’s 2 day delivery meant something? They’ve added so many exclusions and exceptions that it’s meaningless now. I dropped my Prime membership a year and change ago because the last four shipments blew that 2 day period by days. I just ordered something else from them, and they gave me a month free to try to entice me back into the fold. Guess what? I’m now on day 4 of waiting for that item. Their service keeps getting more expensive and getting worse.
That is just one example, I can think of many others, and I’m damned sick of corporations pulling this crap in general.
not to get off track but I have never had an issue with Amazon delivery, I must be lucky with local warehouses close enough to me. My stuff arrives typically same if not next day.
I think Plex should think in charging for a maintenance fee.
But keep in mind that the currency for people outside the US can be a problem.
Look at my case here, I’m from Brazil and 1 dollar costs around 5 Brazilian reais.
If you live in Argentina, this is even worse and things can definitely get impracticable.
So, I would like to suggest something about 2 or 3 dollars per month for users that already have the lifetime pass.
People that don’t want to pay won’t be able to update Plex server, but they would still be able to use it, just without updating.
For the rest of the users that don’t have lifetime subscription, things wouldn’t change.
I don’t disagree that if Plex gets rid of “lifetime” then it should mark that version of the software so people can continue using it as they purchased it. The product can then evolve and move forward and if that user wants the new features they can upgrade and pay.
This is a bit much regardless. Should Autodesk support those users and fix the license for them? yup, but this isn’t like they are disconnecting people from 3 months ago, this is 10 years ago now. The software functioned without issue for 10 years. The company is in a lose lose situation here. The same people complaining it doesn’t work on a new machine are the same people that would sue Autodesk for security vulnebilities found when they get hacked on a 2023 server with a 2014 software running on it lol. I mean, should Autodesk have to keep updating the 2014 version of the software to support new .net versions, new OS versions? Where do you draw the line?
Honestly, companies shouldn’t offer lifetime anything, because whether its $1 or $1 million, someone will complain when it gets discontinued 32 years later.
For the record, I don’t like subscription models. I hate them. They have ruined gaming. That said, I personally think software like Plex would thrive on yearly software fees, this Plex 2023 version, Plex 2024 etc etc. You buy your yearly version for whatever ($50 for example) and you get yearly updates until the next version comes out. Kind of like how software has existed without issue for 30 years now.
$50 dollars = 250 Brazilian reais = 1/5 minimum wage.
I bought lifetime to have a lifetime subscription, now you are saying that you are going to charge 50 dollars per year for updates?
So, if I don’t pay, I won’t have security patches ?
Guess what, Plex is facing the web and now I have to pay 50 dollars for updates ?
That is wrong.
We bought lifetime, I want at least some benefit from average users that didn’t bet in this company 10 years ago. We helped to lift it from the ground and now I’ll be treated like that ?
if its a maintenance fee, OK, but the way you are putting, NO.
I assume the pricing would scale based on region, I was just picking a random number. How many features have they added to Plex Pass over the years? Whether you used them or not. Do you deserve each and every new feature moving forward? Should they be required to maintain a version of the software to keep someone happy that paid $120 15 years ago? I mean I get it, I really do. But I would rather they piss off 1000 people and just start charging me properly for the software I have used daily for 10+ years now, then fold as a company because they feel they need to “honor” lifetime passes.
Also, to be clear, this is HYPOTHETICAL only, I don’t have any insight into anything Plex (possibly the most frustrating thing to me when it comes to Plex).
No. Just, No.
I bought and paid for a “lifetime pass” and that’s what I expect. Anything less would most likely be a breach of contract, subject to legal action.
It’s not my fault that Plex management chose to offer an unsustainable deal. Take it out of the executive’s hides, not the paid customers.
Before I retired, if I screwed up at my job, I faced the likelihood of being fired. Just because you’re an executive or boss shouldn’t mean you get a pass for your screw-ups.
I would love to know if there TOS doesn’t protect them against this. I can almost guarantee you it does. It is amazing to me the principal people will stick with regardless of the fact that it, at this point has probably cost then $.01 a day for use. This is the cost of 20 coffees. We aren’t talking $1000’s here.
But I am glad you would rather Plex fold then help protect keep a great product alive.
Thankfully, as it stands this is all just hypothetical and nothing is happening, so you can stay happy with the best bargain you have ever received
I love Plex, and I really don’t want it to end, and if I can, I’ll definitely help paying a small fee.
Just hope that if this hypothetical fee really happens, it should be an amount that people from other regions can pay, otherwise we will be obligated to leave and that is really unfortunate…
and I don’t think anything is going to change for awhile, this is just a thread about people concerned they will get screwed out of $80-120 from 10 years ago because Plex had to lay off staff. Personally, that’s a bigger concern to me (the poor people that lost their jobs), but alas…
One of Plex’s core values as a company is to put themselves on the customers couch. What that means is up for interpretation, but it means they look out for the customer. But this is also a privately held company. Which means they don’t feel the same pressures as other publicly traded companies to do some of the things we have all experienced with subscription based software. It also means that this is a company that doesn’t have easy access to issuing stocks to get money into the company so they can build better and newer things.
So yeah, if you are a Plex Passionate Person and you have and use the service, if they ask for a little bit to cover expenses, then as long as they are reasonable by all means pay up so they can continue to provide what they provide. Plex was at the forefront of the home media streaming movement. And you know what, we need Plex more now than ever. As the streaming wars continue and many of us have added to our libraries cause we are sick of things getting removed from services and jumping from one to the other… I digress…
It is not easy to balance the customer demands at a global level as Plex does lets give them credit for doing that well.
Why is it that people today don’t even understand the idea of sticking by your word?
In a landscape where everyone from Micro$oft on down is switching to a subscription model because they want more money, Plex made an offer that was a really good deal for the customer. Not one customer could have twisted their arm to make that offer. That’s why I chose to buy into their software as the platform for my TV viewing? I can’t afford Netflix, Amazon, or any of the other streaming platform. And I can’t afford a monthly fee for Plex, either, particularly since they are not providing content, which I get from OTA broadcast TV.
So, what exactly is wrong with expecting a company to honor the deal they offered? Sort of like buying a car, and two years later manufacturer or dealers shows up on your doorstep wanting another $10,000 or so.
I still have the TOS for the Lifetime PlexPass I purchased over a decade ago.
Plex have not violated those TOS as yet.
A subscription for a new offering would also not violate those TOS.
As with MS, I have the option to spend my money elsewhere if I see fit.
What is being discussed is nothing like your analogy at all (although, does any car manufacture offer a warranty and/or new features for longer than 5 years for free ?. Not sure where your $10k comes from but there you go).
I understand everything is relative, but this is completely different. Pease don’t compare $80-$120 you spent on software 10 years ago (or even a year ago for that matter) to a car dealership trying to take $10K from you. Principal clearly matters to you, and that’s fine, move on from Plex if that ever actually happens. For some (like me), I’d rather see Plex succeed even if it means getting some more money from me.
I have a lifetime membership for another web site, and when they fell on hard times, they did not rescind the lifetime deal. I am sure that if I read the fine print, they could have.
But what they did do had almost the same end result. They simply stopped adding the new premium content to the lifetime membership tier, and introduced a new yearly Super Duper membership. So you got all the old stuff forever, but all the new stuff was locked up if you did not subscribe. They clearly broke the spirit of the agreement, but they were in dire straits.
Plex could do something like that but the rate at which they add new features is slow enough that I question how much it would help them.
I want Plex to stick around and if they have to find a way to charge more, that would suck since I bought lifetime… but I will hear them out.
What I really do not want is some kind of a-la-carte menu where I have to pay $3 for Sonic Analysis, $5 for hardware accelerated transcoding, etc. That would have me analyzing my usage and making value calculations and it would suck the joy right out of using the platform.
Hopefully the streaming revenue is enough to keep us on the current Plex Pass model, with support for existing lifetime purchases. I do not begrudge the dev time for the streaming features if it keeps the lights on.
based on how some features have been implemented, and how land standing bugs have never been fixed i’d suggest they probably don’t use plex. if they did they’d quickly realise how poor the implementation of some things are.
