🎙️ AMA: From Rippple to Trakt

Discussions General
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Hey everyone :waving_hand:

I’m Kevin, a longtime Trakt user, VIP, and probably best known around here as the developer behind MOVIST (2014-2021), SERIST (2016-2021), and more recently Rippple for Trakt (2018-now).

For over a decade, I’ve built apps that rely on the Trakt API and have always been deeply passionate about this ecosystem and its community. Trakt has been a big part of my personal and professional journey — so today, I’m excited (and a little nervous!) to share that I’m officially joining the Trakt Team.

:briefcase: What’s changing for me?
After years of working with Trakt, I’m now working on Trakt. I’ve recently started contributing to the Trakt API Partner Program, which I’ve been shaping to better support app developers and create a more sustainable future for our ecosystem.

In the coming months, I’ll be stepping more into a Product Management role. My focus will be on communication, team alignment, and helping shape how Trakt builds and prioritizes features. I believe deeply in Trakt’s mission, and can’t wait to help us grow stronger from the inside out.

:test_tube: What about Rippple?
Rippple is still my side project. It remains independent, loved, and actively maintained. In fact, it’s the first app piloting the new API Partner Program I’ve been shaping. I hope it sets the tone for a new chapter where Trakt and third-party apps thrive together.

:handshake: Let’s Talk
This post is an open door. Ask me anything! My background, the Partner Program, what’s next for Trakt, or anything in between. I can’t promise to have all the answers, but I’m here to listen, to share what I can, and to learn from this amazing community that I’ve been a part of for so long.

Let’s continue building something awesome together :rocket:

Kevin

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Ios only, not really an extra feature for all users

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Congrats!
Rippple is awesome!. User of serist and movist in the past.

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Rippple is just the first of many apps we’d like to see take advantage of the Partner Program. We are in contact with several developers doing amazing stuff on all kind of platforms.

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This is why Trakt VIP should be tiered, for those that can’t or won’t use these “partners”

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As the Product Management lead, could you explain how, from a user’s perspective, including an app in my subscription that would normally cost $9 per year justifies an annual $30 increase in the subscription price? As a consumer, I fail to see the logic or find the rationale convincing.

Furthermore, if this program is to be expanded, why should I — again, from a user’s perspective — contribute through my subscription to the funding of 2, 3, 10 third-party apps, or however many there may be, when at best I might use only one? Here too, as a consumer, I struggle to see the logic.

Thank you, should you choose to respond.

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Sadly, with things going the direction announced recently, the Trakt journey will be over for a lot of us very, very soon.

The leadership has let us all down and is not being active within the community discussions regarding all of our concerns.

I wish you all the best in your new role, but after almost 14 years here, and a couple on the VIP program, I will most probably be transitioning to a different service.

Hopefully you have fun building the future of Trakt, whatever it may hold for it.

P.S. I don’t expect an answer as this seems to be the way Trakt’s leadership handles communication with its users, but if you do decide to engage, I’d love to read what you have to say to us :heart:

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I understand you are not using all the features of Trakt, like nobody is watching every single piece of content on their Netflix subscription. I also understand you feel like you are not taking full advantage of the Trakt VIP subscription at that price.

First, the way this Partner Program is build doesn’t cost you anything additional. If you are already a VIP, you get another app for free. If you are not a VIP and want to support the app and not Trakt, you can. If you are not yet a Trakt VIP, you automatically get more out of your Trakt VIP. If you don’t use the app, you are not paying for other users that do.

But instead of talking about lowering the price or bundling things differently, which are also valid options, can we discuss about what we could do to make you use more of the features you feel you don’t need? How can we improve them so you feel you get a better value out of our current proposition?

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Be more transparent, be honest, actually engage in discussion with disgruntled users, stop shoving things down users throats that don’t want them by forcing price increases to cover those costs. Give tiered access so users get the features they want. Cut back on employees (no way are they all needed) or cut salaries. Stop breaking promises and reneging on things that should he honoured. Fair price increase inline with inflation. Stop hiding and ignoring. Above all be HONEST. That’d help for a start

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Kevin, the thing many at the top brass at Trakt fail to understand is that for a lot of us paying for the VIP option was a way of supporting the service not because we were to use the majority of said VIP features, but because we appreciated what it provided and wanted to throw our support behind it.

Most of the new and additional features are of no use to us not because they don’t work, but because we, as users, are simply not interested in using them. We are here for the tracking functionality, the scrobbling, the lists and some of the fun stats like Year In Review for example.

Paying for the VIP is, for me, and for a ton of people, a show of gratitude and appreciation. The way the team handled both the price increase last year and the current situation has been appalling from a PR and a customer standpoint.

The lack of transparency is honestly hurtful and the broken trust would be very, very hard to repair.

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This isn’t how it is. Here is my point of view (as a Partner with Rippple, as a user and as a Product Manager):

  • Rippple was built over 7+ years. It has always been a Trakt client. It has always had a Premium tier (freemium model). Rippple still has a 9$/year subscription to get premium features. You can take Rippple Premium on top of or alongside Trakt VIP or none at all. Rippple Premium even gives access to some nice features that sometimes are close to what Trakt VIP offers.
  • The price of the Trakt VIP subscriptions have been increased but it has nothing to do with the Trakt API Partner Program or Rippple. It was a business decision made before we even started working on the Partner Program.

I’ve said it above but maybe after you posted. You are not as a user contributing to anything if you are not using other apps. You are contributing to our effort to make Trakt better and this is awesome. But your bucks are not used to fuel only things you don’t use or need or whatever. I hope to be able to shake off this feeling some of you have.

PS: you may be using only the Trakt website but I know some users who use only Trakt through a third-party app. This is something quite unique and beautiful, just look at the diversity of apps using Trakt. It’s something to be encouraged imho… as long as it doesn’t hurt you as a customer (again, the price increase is multi-factor and this is not one of them).

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Following this logic would mean that you should be mad on Netflix because your subscription is being used to fund creation of low quality shows and movies that you will not like or watch at all.

But other subscribers may be quite opposite - they will like it watch those shows and movies.

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For example, all of these requests have been made regularly for years, yet there has never been any response:

I would also add the request not to use my money to fund third-party apps I wouldn’t use, but rather to focus on the development and improvement of the official app. This represents a pointless and entirely avoidable waste of capital and resources.

I understand that, but as a consumer, it’s not in my interest. It gives me the impression that my money is being wasted. I would have preferred to see your app acquired and shut down, with your expertise and talent absorbed into the official app.

Why should I be paying to fund the development of both the official app and additional ones? I still haven’t received any justification for this. And I’ll say it again: as a paying user, the feeling I get is that my money is being wasted.

This is true for Trakt Lite, developed entirely, and is enormously true even more so for a third-party developed client. No sense.

Would you pay twice as much for your car if the manufacturer told you something like, “We’ve created a Partner Program to fund other companies that make third-party accessories to customize your car, which you’ll be able to get for free”? Or would you think that, if you ever need them, you’ll get them separately on your own — since it makes no sense to pay in advance, by default, for something you don’t need?

It’s extra, from someone outside who you are paying. The comparison with Netflix is not apt.

So is it just a coincidence that the announcement came right around the same time, with the apparent reason of “adding more value to VIP” while the funds to support the development of not just one, but several third-party apps were already available?

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For context, I’m subscribed to almost every streaming platform except Netflix, precisely because its average quality is shockingly low. I have no intention of paying (an already overpriced fee) for dozens of poor productions just to watch one. So the comparison doesn’t hold.

Netflix uses its own funds to support itself — not third-party, optional competitors.

Would you pay more for your Netflix subscription just to have the option to use an app made by someone else instead of the one built by Netflix?

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Not take it. I want to pay for TRAKT features, not some random app’s salary. Why not just stay separate and in complete control of your own app, or is the salary what grabbed you? Or have tier and charge extra for those wanting the third party apps. I’ve used the analogy before, basic Sky subscription for their channels, bolt ons for their “partners” like Discovery.

And yet you become an employee at the same time :thinking:

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Thank you for introducing yourself. Good to see someone from Trakt actually reach out to the community after the commotion of the last few. days :slight_smile: I would be more nervous about that than about taking on a new job. :wink: I wish you the best of luck in your new role.

In my household we currently have 2 active VIP subscriptions of which 1 has been cancelled as a result of the price increase. The 2nd was renewed earlier this month, still under the $30 subscription fee. Whether or not we will keep it is yet to be seen.

We are using Trakt from an iPad as well as from AppleTV. Tracking watches is typically done manually from the Trakt app on iPad. My wife also uses the Trakt app on Apple TV to launch the next eposiode in the right streaming app. We have no long lists, collections or notes. Our only use for Trakt it to keep track of what we’ve watched, and easily find something to watch. In this regards, the advanced filtering should allow us to filter on movies and episodes available on our streaming services. Unfortunately this is not available on the iOS, iPadOS and tvOS versions of the Trakt apps, making the promised VIP feature unusable. I’ve always felt that $30 (or even 2x $30) was a fair contribution to keep the site running, but I can honestly not justify $60 for that one feature, especially since it is not working on the platform we are using.

We are now exploring Rippple. The ability to show the icons of your favorite streaming services next to available movies and episodes is actually the closest we are getting to the one feature we want to use. Given our limited use, for us it might make more sense to let the Trakt VIP expire and pay for Ripple Premium…

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I’m really trying to be fair and I absolutely get why you are excited about making your passion your job. I wish you best of luck and success.

Your Netflix example is actually a good example for another company being at risk to do it wrong.

Not because not anyone will watch everything they offer. No, because they are branching out too far from their initial premise. They do games too, dabble into sports. The more heavily they invest in those other fields, while also constantly increasing their prices, the more they will come under pressure to split up their services. To make it optional to subscribe to sports or games. Just like Disney and other megacorporations do too.

And that’s the same issue with Trakt. I consider exactly one VIP feature essential: Advanced filtering.
But all I see is these filters being less functional in the official app, options getting reduced (last year filter option was dropped) while the Trakt team is feverishly searching for what else they might “improve” next. And if you’ve been following the feedback, you’ll know that Trakt’s choices and priorities have been quite … controversial.

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OK, so let’s take that request a bit further (just to play devil’s advocate).

I’d rather my money wasn’t used to develop the features you want to use.

That just doesn’t work, does it? Development has to be a mix of features, to provide a range of users the features they want, with prioritisation and compromise.

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Hence, excuse me repeating myself, introduce tiers. If they are determined to have third party features, let those that want them pay extra and those that want just Trakt features pay less

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My use-case is also centred on the Apple TV, in a general Apple ecosystem household. Unless I’m misunderstanding you, this is available in the current TestFlight beta?

“Filter by Favorite Services In Shows/Movie Tabs”

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