Have no issues that concern me for my/our usage as clients (across multiple continents/countries) and server owner.
More a case of ROI.
YMMV.
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just as well we don’t you use as a barometer for all things Plex then.
Convoluted response and will assume you typed it on the go as it didn’t really make sense. Transposition perhaps or dyslexia 
However, I’m a Windows user (well, iOS as well) so my expectations for software are not high.
I have around 40 people accessing media on my server, only 1 complains about Plex, the same person who has a habit of breaking anything electronic
Given what Plex does for our usage, brilliant software and have had good support for issues that have popped up over the past 12 years or so (mostly my fault).
I did say YMMV. They have around 20 million users from memory, possibly fewer with some competition coming online and other factors.
As long as I can continue to host and serve the thousands of images and videos of our family (GoPro, grandchildren photos, birthdays etc) with our family and friends in the world, I’m happy.
Until Plex actually announce something, this thread is going nowhere.
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you assumed wrong then, and i can’t help what you can’t make sense of.
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Lifetime in software means the life of the product, not your life.
They can simply announce Plex reached end of life and bring a new “product”, i.e. Plex2
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Holy 
, you mean after a couple of days @Annoyed STILL doesn’t understand this concept?!?!?!
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I DARE YOU to sue every software developer and every tech manufacturer you have ever purchased from and see how far you will go.
I use applications like Affinity Designer and even their parent company Serif had to readjust their terms because when they went on to develop app 2.0, many customers were upset that they had to spend yet another $50 to $100 on the numerical upgrade to updates and fixes of the 1.0 product. How are you expecting the individuals who make the product to eat and pay their bills with you getting things consistently for free, for life? I suppose you allow your boss or employer to have you work for nothing, then.
Let’s try to turn down the temperature in the discussion a bit… we’re drifting towards insulting.
Not sure that’s really necessary; especially because it’s an entirely hypothetical discussion.
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Folks, I don’t want Plex to fail either. And all of this is completely theoretical at this time; AFAIK, Plex has announced no plans to tack on extra charges. None of this comes into play until they actually announce something.
But the idea of modifying the “lifetime membership” that has been raised here is to me, certainly unethical, possibly illegal, and unacceptable. And I’m really having a hard time understanding how so many of their customers are so eager and willing to accept such a change in terms as well. To me, it’s just wrong, period. They made a deal, they should stick with it. If they need to reduce expenses or raise revenue, there are other options. Such as raising the price for new members who have not had the foresight to sign up for a lifetime deal.
Oh, and did you notice? They cut expenses by firing workers. How many management types were let go? Or even forced to accept pay cuts? This is a useful product, although it has more than a few flaws, but it seems that the corporate structure is much the same as any other greed-infested company.
2 words explain it - fan boy
no doubt the CEO will appear on the biggest Plex fan boy of all Lon.TV youtube channel gushing about all the good things they are doing and Lon.TV will gush back about how much he loves Plex.
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It’s quite possible for a majority of Plex workers to also wish things were different, without having the power to change anything. I know, because I have been on the inside of a company in a similar situation. I’ve even been the product manager that theoretically had the authority to make such changes, and been prevented from doing so.
There are many reasons that seemingly simple issues go on forever. I am not saying they are all good reasons, but it happens all the time.
Now that’s a solid assumption. Whether managers were let go or not, the difference a small company like Plex has compared to a “corporate” greed company though is those managers are basically the creators. So… yes… it would actually make sense if they were the last on the list and not necessarily greed. I think you have Plex confused with McDonalds sir…
Companies make GOOD and BAD decisions, all of them. The ENTIRE tech industry is struggling right now, as most people here are probably in it should know that. Lay off the ignorant greed comments about a small software company lol. Plex has investors because… shocker… $120 one time from 100,000 people doesn’t keep the lights on for 15 years. I am a lifetime member and I love my basically free product. But I would completely understand if they start putting in Premium+ level products that we would need to start paying for again to keep the product moving forward. Trust me, I am as petty and principal driven as you probably are. The difference though is I see the ability to help Plex continue to thrive differently than you do, that’s all. I am not a fan boy… If you look up the stats on my account you will see how active I was about 8 years ago and then just disappeared. I still use the product, think it works great but got sick of dealing with the community (plus the forum changes and the lack of roadmap/updates from the company). But Plex is basically a daily part of my family and friends so I want it to continue to grow and the competition is still a joke compared to them.
I really don’t have a problem with additional charges for additional services. For example, isn’t Tidal an added cost music service? I have no issue with that. If someone wants that service, and is willing to pay for it, fine with me. That doesn’t affect the basic functionality that I paid for, specifically, the ability to tune & record OTA TV. (The broadcast industry is going to try to kill that in a few years with ATSC 3.0 anyway unless the govt. intervenes; these are PUBLIC airwaves)
Who knows, maybe they can work a deal with Paramount+, Netflix or some other paid streaming provider to include that content in Plex, that would be a reasonable extra cost service. But to require additional payment for what I already bought would be wrong.
You have two roommates. One guy pays rent a year in advance and one hasn’t paid in 3 years. Do you charge the good roommate more money or get rid of the deadbeat?
Remember, there are people who pay nothing to run a server
Taking away or limiting people who have already paid to support the product makes less sense to me than charging people something who have paid a big fat ZERO DOLLARS for years of a functioning server
I have a free server and one with a lifetime pass
I would not be happy if they altered the Plex Pass account I have, but I really couldn’t complain if they took away features I have on my free server
Make some combination of these items a Plex Pass only feature.
- Plex Home
- Live TV
- Online subtitle searches
- Optimized Versions
- Watch Together
- Limited number of remote users (or make remote uses pay a one time fee the way they do with mobile devices)
IMO, Plex has been overly generous with some of these features and I don’t think it’s unreasonable to charge a small fee for at least some of those
Let people using a free server try out certain plex pass features like skip intro or hardware transcoding for 30 days
Incentivize people in a fair way to be a customer, don’t alienate people who have already paid. Keep your 5 dollar a month customer instead of making it easy to fall back to a free server
A lifetime Plex pass purchase is still a source of income. A current alteration of your lifetime pass means a discontinuation of most income from future sales of a lifetime pass. Who’s going to buy one now that you’ve told them they can alter the agreement any time they want?
Regardless of how you feel about it personally, changes to the lifetime pass means that a lot of people will walk away.
If I left Plex tomorrow, not a single person connected to my server would ever log in to Plex again for the rest of their lives.
They could be throwing away a substantial potential revenue stream for their free online content, they seem to be relying on
No analogy is perfect. But comparing a finite resource (room and board) to a theoretically limitless service not useful. I don’t necessarily disagree with your premise, but you’ve got to lead with a better example than that.
The entire Chicken Little aspect of this thread makes me sad. Really, really sad. You all have better things to do with your time. I hope.
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This list would have been okay but additional “features” like Podcasts, Web Shows and News were added only to be removed due to low user engagement or in the case of Podcasts, something that the development team took on as a challenge but turned into a very complex project that did not pan out to be as successful as it should have, thus then having to rely on the OTHER newly added features to subsidize what could’ve been offered at the free tier. Photo sync for devices is actually STILL a priority, so much so that both APPLE AND GOOGLE still also haven’t found the answers either. Plex, while just as complex as any ecosystem, was just as capable of assisting in keeping Photos and everything backed up. They severely dropped the ball on that endeavor, something they could have excelled and exceeded everyone’s expectations because both Apple and Google have actually gone backwards, taking away features from its billions of users and exploiting their users by making them pay for cloud storage, which is something that’s rather cheaper when self hosted by us Plex Server users and not by these companies.
My point of this is that while being a Plex Pass holder has “perks” it’s also been hell due to the large amount of inconvenience and inconsistency that’s been seen by the numerous development of ambitious toys like Arcade and VR, something that a high percentage of the user base didn’t ask for. Audiobooks and even documents aka comic book reader was far higher than what I just mentioned. It’s ridiculous to know that while I don’t particularly have a large audiobook library (under 200 AB’s), I would have loved to have seen this long requested feature be added like the hundreds who have votes for it before me. That would have been an easy $100 yearly premium fee I would have put towards Plex Pass.
Instead, we got corporate intervention and interests involved that’s simply beyond both the Plex developers and our control. Things like Discovery and the Universal Watchlist was not on anyone’s wishlists or highly anticipated as an urgent release. 
I wouldn’t dissect a silly analogy in a literal sense.
It’s simply to point out that people may be focusing on the wrong group to pin this hypothetical source of new income
I am not in a panic and I wouldn’t let it alter your mood
Since we’re dishing out advice instead of commenting on the topic…
If you’re going to insult everyone here for not having better things to do you should probably hide your public profile first so nobody can see how often you’re here reading this crap lol
Your first statement answered your last two words, on the face of it. The whole point of the 20% staff reduction was to reduce costs and ensure viability, in the face of post Covid impacts that many companies are going through.
As for your middle comment, companies always want to earn more …
As for PlexPass (including Lifetime offers), Plex has other ways to generate revenue.
Huh. It certainly wasn’t my intention to insult anyone. Not sure what my profile has to do with it, in any case. It should show that my primary goal is to help folks with whatever issues they’re experiencing. I apologize if you felt attacked.
This topic seems to have raised some hackles on every (hypothetical) side. My general opinion is that there’s nothing to see here, move along.
Moving back into the “it works for what I want,” grab some 
stands.
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One last parting comment. I’d just like to state how very depressing the “If you’re not with me you’re against me” position has become. There’s no longer any middle ground or “third option.” It breaks my heart.
These are some of the more tame forums I’ve experienced in my years on the Internet. And still, people do not know how to treat each other well. Global reach and anonymity give folks carte blanche to treat anybody, anywhere, however they feel.
Do better. Bye.
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