Suggestion: Make explicit the subscription nature of the software

Having looked at the webpage for purchasing OD just now, for the first time in forever, I have to say I agree with you.  The only indication is the tag line below the Buy Now button:

The word 'subscription' doesn't appear in the buying process as best I can tell.  And that tag line really doesn't make clear what happens after that 'one year'.  Once you buy, you'll see an expiration date on your MyAccount page but that's a bit subtle itself and doesn't quite explain what exactly will 'expire' on that date.

It's such a great product, I hate to see SD take heat for lack of transparency as I don't for a minute believe it is intentional.  Should be a very easy fix.

I don't get the confusion.

You pay a price, you get the software. 

If you want updates to the software after the year, you renew for a reduced price.

MANY companies offer their software in this model. Winstep Included.

Nothing to see here...

I must agree with Phoon on this one, nothing out of the ordinary with this: 

It is "the nature of the beast" that people will post if/when they have a complaint.  People who are happy tend not to.  This slants one's perception of an 'issue'.  In reality there is no 'sheer regularity', not in the decades of Object Desktop's existence.

Subscription or not, there is no real difference to the obtaining of the product/s included.  You purchase and you download/install.

About the only variation you might argue is that with the Subscription process there could be a 'warning'...."You 'only' have 12 months to download the products, so don't dawdle."

I know of several products I have bought outright in the past that had a warning "Download links will expire in x hours/days." which actually is a more dire situation than 12 months...;)

I don't think bodabar's observation or suggestion is unreasonable at all.  Piece of cake to remedy.

It is, but I was specifically addressing the suggestion that there was a 'sheer regularity'.  The reality is that almost all understand that an Object Desktop Subscription is a subscription...;)

BTW...nothing in my reply suggested anything was 'unreasonable'.

It is the nature of the beast that no matter how clearly it is put there will always be people who fail to understand/notice.

I was not referring to your reply.

Why amplify it when it's just the nature you pay for upgrade/new features...etc. It's rare instance you will get a free life time upgrade which developers like to say that. 

The point is not whether you understand that it's a subscription model or not, the point is that plenty of people seem not to. Just read through these forums. Have a look at how often someone posts to say that they didn't realise it was a subscription. It's quite often. And it's a really nasty surprise to find out that something's a subscription only when it runs out.

Some people took this opportunity to opine that they don't think it's unreasonable for Object Desktop and its associated products to be offered as a subscription. That's missing the point and really nothing to do with what I was saying. It's nothing to do with whether that is seen as fair or reasonable by anyone, but that there are a number of people who post to this forum to say they didn't realise that it was a subscription in the first place. That's what I'm suggesting is a problem - not the pricing model itself.

Jafo makes the point that you tend to hear from people who are unhappy more than those who are - after all, if you have nothing to complain about, then why say anything? And that is probably true, to a point; because it also holds that for every person who bothers to complain when they're unhappy, there are many others who don't. Likewise, people who sign up and are active on the forum are likely to be happy users.

All I'm suggesting is that Stardock makes it explicit on the product and purchasing pages that it is a subscription. Like I say, if you get a couple of people saying they didn't know it was a subscription, then they're probably just being daft. But when you get the amount of posts on here from people saying they didn't understand, then I'd suggest it might be a good idea to revise the pages to spell it out. It costs nothing to do and it helps prevent people being disappointed.

Likewise, my other suggestion that the keyboard shortcut to suppress the loading of Windowblinds be made explicit. There doesn't seem to be any documentation for Windowblinds any more, so how is anyone supposed to know? When a Windows update results in a black screen, it's quite a leap to work out that it might be Windowblinds causing it. There are far more likely suspects and the sufferer does have a black screen to contend with, which isn't exactly the best thing for browsing a forum.

I'm not saying you don't have any valid points and something couldn't be added to spell it all out in easy terms. However I would like to add this.

You say there are a lot of post asking or complaining about this subscription service. Let me add that up to approx 2 years ago there was actually a monthly subscription service. That is no longer available. Most if not all of these complaints or whatever one wants to call the post want to know what happened to the monthly subscription and they don't want to pay for a yearly fee service. It's like that with almost all the software I use as almost no one if any give you lifetime updates anymore. Seems to me from all I read and know many want to be this monthly sub to get updated software for win 10 and leave again. I'm sure I'm not the only one that is seeing this as those like myself that are on here everyday gets to read all this stuff. 

It's stated under the 'Buy Now' button that you get a year of updates and betas. It's more of a membership as your products don't stop working once your membership is up. 

I'll pass along the suggestion to the team.

You & I know what that means, ID.  Not sure a never-seen-it-before customer would.  0.02

I don't know if subscription is even the correct way to describe Object Dock.  If you don't pay the renewal fee you still use the software forever, as is.  On the other hand if I buy the cloud versions of Adobe products and stop paying the subscription monthly rate, the software stops working.  If I buy the boxed version of Photoshop I use it forever but get no updates after a period of time.

I have seen posts where new users fear the software will no longer work at all  after a year without renewing.  

Object Desktop.

Actually....that's probably the point.  OD has been a subscription service long before Adobe [and many others] ever started being THEIR version of a 'subscription service'.  That's what's confusing/worrying people.

To me, a REAL 'subscription' is like that with a monthly Magazine.  When you stop subscribing someone doesn't sneak into your house and take all the magazines you bought over the years...;)

Well, the point has been made and Island Dog has said they'll pass it along to the staff. Thank you.

Jafo et al: it doesn't matter what the cause of confusion is (or whether you consider something a real subscription), rather that the confusion be resolved. Anyway, the point has been raised and passed along. That's all that needed to happen. Perhaps a new post can be started if people wish to discuss the nature of subscription services.

I find it very strange that since you have to have your product key to activate the software, I don't really see an issue with SD having an archive of d/l's for previous versions. 

Personally, I had purchased the OD software in 2014. (Correction: 2012) It was not until after the year that I found out that you couldn't d/l the products within the pack. Thus I ended up having to purchase both Object Dock and Fences. (The only things I used from OD.) Now, over a year later, I can still d/l both of those products. 

So, I don't see why SD can't make it available for OD to be able to be d/l'd like the single standalone products. And I find it rather infuriating personally that you cannot.

ObjectDock has never been a part of ObjectDesktop.

Except it's not cheaper or reduced and it is NOT transparent that you are buying a subscription-based service.

You can get object desktop for $19.99 if you try to buy any other product, and in the comparison screen, choose anything besides the $49.99 option, in which case renewal is 50% more what they easily and CONSISTENTLY truly sell it for. (Like other programs give coupons when you uninstall their trials to get you to buy it, these coupons always exist and can be assumed to be the true price of the program, they'll sell it for triple almost if they can get away with it though)
And it is NOT shown, it is shown as assumed that you are buying all these products at once depending where you purchase it.

From here, where I got it, I was not told it would be useless after 365 days anywhere on this comparison screen, I was actually told the opposite, saying I'd get updates at the bottom, which is implied indefinitely in the wording.

This argument about 'transparency' has been going on for a while and I see both sides of the issue.

In fairness, Object Desktop is not & has never been 'useless after 365 days' - it's a simple process to download the installers for all the individual apps included in OD, as well as the activation code, and keep them forever.  They will always install, even after a subscription expires, provided you are still on a compatible OS (in other words, they may or may not work on Win10+ after expiration, depending on whether subsequent OS changes render them unusable & we can't expect Stardock to be clairvoyant).  After expiration, the only thing you 'lose' is the opportunity to update the applications to newer versions - you may use the versions you have as long as they will run on your rig.  You can install & activate them on a new or different rig if you wish or need to - they never 'expire' and only unforeseeable OS changes would render them 'useless'.

Initial purchase costs are clearly shown.  Renewal subscriptions have always been at an 'existing customer' discount.

The argument about how 'easy' it is to know these facts seems to never end, but those are the facts.

Yes, Daiwa is entirely correct....;)

That's the only fact that's relevant.

The point is that, for whatever reason, there is a steady stream of people who do not understand how the Stardock subscription works and it comes as an unpleasant surprise to them when they do.

It doesn't matter whether they're daft for not knowing this or that they've missed all the bits that point out it's a subscription. It's not that. It's that there is a not insignificant number of people who do miss all this and are not too happy when they find out. Regardless of the reason for their confusion, wouldn't it just be better to eliminate that confusion in the first place? After all, no one wants an upset customer, do they?

Sure, you understand that it's a subscription; you read all the text properly; you know exactly what you're buying into. But plenty of people don't. The suggestion was to make it more explicit to remove any confusion. Surely nobody can be against that, huh? How could removing confusion cause anyone any problems? And yet here we are yet again with posts railing against those who were confused.

PS Jafo, I don't know if you're a moderator or what, but (and I mean this in the nicest possible way) maybe click the karma button instead of a five word post that adds nothing to the conversation, except to agree with the person above.

Site Administrator.

Daiwa doesn't need my karma...I like him anyway.  However, reaffirmation that what he stated being correct is far more salient.

There's actually not a "not insignificant number of people who do miss all this" but only a few, and the nature of the beast is that were you to rewrite everything to attempt to avoid ALL confusion you still would not succeed.

I'll forward the issue to the site's coders to attempt to lessen confusion but mark my words there will always be the confused...;)

If the button were to change from "Buy Now" to "Subscribe Now" - seems there would be no grounds for confusion (or threads such as this) thereafter.

Again, just my 0.02.

RIDICULOUS The whole thing !

-You bought the Current software and can use it for a lifetime.

+Free updates for a year ! -Wow.   

End of story.

Hey , leave me out of this!