>Again, it's free software so I'm not sure what the problem is. I learned from this experience that some people will never pay, and some will. I'm not opposed to alienating people who won't support all of the time, effort, and money I put into this product.
It's always surprising to me when devs are surprised by outrage at the change/removal of a free product. There is a non-negligible cost for a user to research/choose/setup/learn a new tool. In this case, a feed reader has favorited articles, read/unread state of articles, etc. When you pull the rug out from users that have made that investment who now have to start over, they are going to be mad, regardless of what they paid.
The software is free. They can just run their own. It takes about 5 minutes of one-time setup. I wasn't taking away anything they couldn't already get for free and with minimal effort.
That's not realistic at all. Maybe for the average HN reader, but not for average users, even RSS savvy ones.
I know plenty of people who use RSS that wouldn't be able to check if Python is in their PATH as per your instructions. Unless there's some friendlier instructions that I'm not seeing.
Then maybe if it's too hard it's worth paying for.
I am always surprised (and dismayed) and the grotesque sense of entitlement engendered in people that they expect everything to be free, all the time, forever.
I agree completely, I was just offering a reason as to why people were reacting the way they were and that saying they lost nothing is just plain wrong.
It's always surprising to me when devs are surprised by outrage at the change/removal of a free product. There is a non-negligible cost for a user to research/choose/setup/learn a new tool. In this case, a feed reader has favorited articles, read/unread state of articles, etc. When you pull the rug out from users that have made that investment who now have to start over, they are going to be mad, regardless of what they paid.