Anybody else getting a “free jelly of the month club” vibe from this? And NO, this isn’t the gift that keeps on giving. All I want to do is add to my collection. Is this worth $60.00 a year? Convert that into Canadian, and it’s $5,000.00 a year. Ok, it’s actually around $90 depending on the day, but that’s STILL way too much. Maybe consider an alternate way of convincing people to spend money. This just ticked people off, and they will move to Simkl. If Coke trippled their price, people will switch to Pepsi (or vice versa). Maybe offer the people who are already users a HUGE discount on a lifetime plan.
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You might want to read more of this thread to see why some VIP users are upset about these new limitations.
I’ve read the entire thread. Been following it since day one.
Trakt loses the free users who maintain lists that other VIP users value. This increases the possibility that those VIP users may move to another service. Trakt also loses the free users who recommend Trakt to people who might become VIP subscribers. As this continues, will Trakt double the VIP price again? Will they remove the grandfathered $15/year and $30/year subscribers? Will they be willing to pay $60/year?
I suspect that the vast majority of us paying users maintain our own lists and don’t rely on those of others. Or are more than capable of figuring out how to mirror the list to their paid account here.
The success of Freemium models is based not just on the conversion of free users but also on the participation of free users. If 5% of free users become paying subscribers and the number of free users drops by 50%, do you think the number of paying subscribers doubles? No.
The fact that the vast majority of folks complaining or failing to figure out how to circumvent some of the restrictions have never paid despite being users for years indicates that the chances of any of those long time users ever becoming paying customers is near zero anyways.
Sure do. What’s your point? FYI, I have about 150 on my watchlist
Maybe try to figure out who I was addressing that question to seeing as I wasn’t replying to you. But the question was posed because some folks seem to be using the Watch List in a fashion that isn’t very efficient especially with the new limits.
Cool. So, you’re happy that these users are being punished by not being notified that this price increase was coming. Now, they’re leaving Trakt instead of subscribing at $60. I think that’s the definition of cutting off your nose to spite your face .
No I’m not happy but merely pointing out that people had the option to buy in. It’s no different than always watching a stock price and never buying in, then years later thinking how unfair it is you didn’t buy Berkshire-Hathaway at <$10,000. Or in software terms, no different than regretting not buying Roon when that was relatively cheap for a lifetime license. BTW when was the last time ANY service announced months in advance that they were going to increase their fees? Did Netflix inform you the second increase in under a year was coming and offer you the opportunity to extend your contract with them at the current price?
I’d also suspect the vast majority of VIP users became paying users not because they feared the cost would increase, but rather because we were adult enough to understand that developing and maintaining Trakt costs money, that we found it useful, and that we wanted it to be developed further. The number of recent extensions to the App and website endorse this as a solid reason considering how many new tweaks have been added (for free and paying users).
Obviously your mileage varies on this viewpoint and people (ab)using the free element of Trakt are now vehemently complaining because their gravy train hasn’t even ended, but is just slightly limited as to how much they can serve themselves for free.
Maybe it should be a lesson for the future, if you appreciate someone devoting time to something and use their free service, throw them a bone once in a while.
ETA. If you read Justin’s details, you’ll see that the percentage of folks that are affected by the relatively minor changes is pretty small. Instead of thinking that’s a reason that it should be overlooked, instead view it in a similar fashion as to how a relatively small percentage of people abused Google Drive’s unlimited storage ability resulting in a change that impacted everyone negatively. In other words we can’t have nice things because a vocal minority didn’t do the right thing.
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I had some time this morning and afternoon to look around, and I think I’ve found a replacement. It doesn’t separate collected versus watched, which kind of sucks for those of us with local collections. But I like the interface better (Trakt’s has always had noticeably slow loads for some views/lists), and their middle tier that enables more features than I’ll never need is slightly more than half the cost of Trakt when billed yearly.
I’m frankly annoyed at how this was handled (including the response/explanation in this thread), and trying out a new service by rebuilding my library sounds kind of fun, so right now, I’d rather give my money to someone else. But Trakt does fit my uses a little better, so I’ll probably check in from time to time to see if they introduce a middle tier.
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I’m really supportive about paying for the services I use but 60 bucks yearly is just too much for the really basic functionality I use and never touch the 95% of the rest of the features. You just created an absurd high step up between a free user and a paid one, free users have barely any functionality now.
Again I’m not against paying but the changes you just introduced need different pay tiers. Right now its all or nothing. Sad.
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what a terrible idea to limit free user’s watchlist. There is no good reason for new people to come to this app/website anymore.
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he made the business bad to begin with
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A lot of people can’t justify spending $60 a year on this site. I already have a tight budget and can’t afford this subscription. And I definitely can’t justify trying to find a way to work it into my budget when I’d only be getting it to be able to add more items to my shows/movies to watch lists. I couldn’t justify the old $30 a year subscription when I wouldn’t use any of the extra features. If you can afford the subscription and justify it, good for you. It was nice to have a site that is useable for free users. In this increasingly capitalist society, it’s becoming very rare. These limits are ending my use of the site. As I said in my previous comment, it’s unusable for me now. My “shows to watch” list has 438 items on it and my “movies to watch” list has 286 items on it. I intend to watch those items. And yes, I do remove the items from those lists once I watch them. When I want to find something to watch, scrolling through those lists with everything on it is way easier than going through each streaming service watchlist to find something. I also have a bad memory and need the lists to remember everything I want to watch. Plus I use the lists to keep track of new shows/movies coming out that I want to watch. We all use the site differently and it’s not your place to criticize how others use it. If you can work within these limits, I’m happy for you. For those of us who can’t and see these limits as completely absurd, understand where we’re coming from and why we’re so upset.
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I think you fail to understand the problem for most free users. They can’t afford to pay $60 just to remove the list limitations.
If you read my previous post you would understand that even though for India, Trakt VIP in playstore is $21, that is still 25% higher cost than Prime Video and Disney+.
So relatively speaking, if Prime is $140 and Disney+ is $160 in US then thats like charging $175-200 for Trakt. Would you pay $175 for Trakt?
And this is after the Playstore India discount, there are a lot of countries that are not getting any kind of regional pricing so for them, it’s way too much. I’m sure many free users wanna contribute, but the pricing structure is mainly for the US and there’s no low tiered “Trakt Supporter/Fans” plan either.
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This does all make me wonder about Trakt’s vision for the future. I’ve supported for many years thinking that this is media tracking for all; a great Letterboxd competitor welcoming in as many users as possible. I’ve always thought that if Trakt expanded, it would be into tracking more types of media.
But crippling the free tier, doubling the entry fee for VIP, and developing “Trakt Lite” does have me confused what the goal is.
Many other services can do the tracking, but Trakt’s combination of tracking features, trustworthy data management, profile stats, user ratings/reviews and media discovery is unmatched, IMO. However if the number of users drops, that is negatively impacted.
But again, maybe I just don’t have a correct impression of the vision going forward. If the goal is to be more of a more walled-off elite service, like the Apple ecosystem of tracking sites, that’s fair but not what I thought this was.
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I have been using Trakt for many years and I am very happy. I think this new situation is looking to keep “captive users” so, with much regret, I’m going to start looking for alternatives so I don’t end up being a prisoner of Trakt.
This was not the initial philosophy of this “big family” that was Trakt.
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It’s very simple, for example, I subscribe to all movies that start in theaters or streaming to be notified when they are offered on my TV channels or subscribed streaming services to watch them. That can quickly add up to more than 100 movies on my watchlist.
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That’s a good idea, having used showly already I didn’t think about doing that. Certainly what I’ll do now rather than continue to use trakt due to these changes.
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Tracking what you watch means be able to put stuff on the watchlist that you want to watch and then watch ist an get it listed somewhere that you watched it.
The 100 limit is on the watchlist aswell (so you cant have more then 100 movies/series that you plan to watch or are coming up in the feature) and as soon as you watch it, it disappears from the watchlist so you would need to put it in a personal list.
and ontop of not be able to fill the watchlist anymore (i am at 104 upcoming not yet released movies/series on my watchlist!) you could find “watched” movies/series per filter BUT you need VIP for that aswell. So there is no possible way to keep a growing list or overview of things you already watched.
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Personally, for me, the change that affects me the most is having my collection of movies and series episodes limited to 100 items.
I use the collections to know which episodes I have and which ones I am missing of a tv show. Limiting the number of items in the collection to 100 seems crazy to me since there are tvshows that have more than 100 episodes.
The fear I have is that they start “cutting” features. Now it has been the lists and collections and tomorrow it will be the number of movies or episodes watched ?
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Started as a free user, then switched to VIP three years ago just to support Trakt and to use Plex scrobbler.
I just track watched items and add stuff to watchlist (over 550 items), I don’t follow curated lists, I don’t create lists, I don’t use collections.
Just the basics and Plex scrobbler. (I’ll never use the new streaming scrobbler due to privacy concerns).
I can support for 30€/years, but 60€ is just plain crazy.
If nothing changes (VIP prices, free users limits) I’ll cancel my VIP membership before the next renewal and I’ll just switch to the free tier, track items manually and manage the watchlist in another way (too lazy to find alternatives and start from scratch).
This is for sure a clear enshittification choice (like VIP price doubled for reasons).
Hope for better but prepared for worse.
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You probably just discovered that people don’t have time sometimes and can’t watch things when they want to, so people add in a custom list or watchlist, so when they have time identify with what you wanted to watch quickly (because they don’t remember the names). Also at that time, maybe new movies, TV shows appears or new seasons, which you are more interested in than the ones you had already added, that’s why your watchlist keeps growing… that doesn’t mean that people are not interested in the others items that added before, is just that are given priority to new ones, because they like more. Then the limit of 2 list and 100 items each, is a bad joke for old users and for new users too. Without talking about the collections limit…
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As an existing VIP you’re still on the $30 plan (unless you cancel it). So why would something that does not impact you trigger you to cancel it?
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I was on 30€ plan but under profiles → manage VIP the renewal price bumped to 60€.
I cancelled before the expiration then on Black Friday (before the expiration date) I used an offer for another year at 30€. Now I don’t know if this price will remain the same or it will increase.
Anyway, since the only way to be listened is hit where hurts, I vote with my wallet and cancel subscription. VIP subscriptions keep things running for free user. if free user get hurt they can do nothing. VIP members can.
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You know that there’s only 24hours in a day and most ppl don’t sit there watching all day right?
Ppl like me add stuff they want to watch to watch later. But many times don’t have enough time in the day to watch what they add but still want to.
Then more things come out that users want to watch later. It then adds up.
Don’t know why some of you judge why some ppl have more in their watchlist than others.
Ppl watch in their own pace.
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