Maybe I missed it, but why not just increase Apollo subscription rates to match the new pricing? It sounds like Apollo has a huge following that would be willing to support it. Take advantage of the hate train, tons of people would donate through a subscription model. It also sounds like these third party apps provide much better moderation interfaces, that could a selling point for the rates. Even if your subscriptions drop, it's still profit. I'm sure someone would be willing to do this, I don't understand the reason for not wanting to sell the app either. To me it sounds like the Apollo developer is undervaluing their position.
He says, in the FA, that the problem was that Reddit's prices kick in 1 month from now, but plenty of people have already pre-paid him for a year at the old price. So he loses 50k the first month, then 10% of his user base re-ups at the new price and month 2 he only loses 45k, then another 10% renew and he only loses 40k in month 3... not really a sustainable way to run a business.
Yea, I read that. I think that's a negative outlook. How many of those customers are sympathetic and would re-up at a new subscription rate? How many sympathetic new subscriptions could be generated? Refund current outstanding subs, and start a new sub, never take a hit. I mean, don't get me wrong, they can do whatever they want, it just doesn't seem like the dead end they make it.
Yeah, especially when he says he'll be giving pro-rated refunds when it shuts down anyways, so it's not like he can't/won't do that. I'm honestly a bit baffled by both sides' behavior in this situation.
