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0 pointsstavros1y ago0 comments

Can you please just add a paid tier before shutting down? Just a $5/mo something that shows a badge on your account, or whatever. Call it something other than "donate", "premium account" or something, and see how many people pick it up. You "only" need 1500 people to do that to cover the costs, which is less than a thousandth of your user base.

Even if it gives a few useful features to subscribers, that's better than shutting down.

0 comments

dustincoates1y ago

They have a paid tier, called insiders, although you can also "pay" through helping other users on the site: https://exercism.org/insiders

stavrosOP1y ago

Ah, thanks, I looked for that but didn't find it (the "donate" button reminded me of a one-off). I'd recommend changing the link name to "pricing" and A/B testing the recommended donation amount being $5/mo.

I don't know how much effort they've put into experimenting with pricing, but it'd be worth trying to increase donations, especially for such a well-designed site.

joker991y ago

Never knew they had this, signed up immediately :) Exercism is worthy of 120$ a year and worth its weight in gold. It has helped me learn Rust, Swift and Kotlin and I'll be forever greatful!

sroussey1y ago

I’ve had things with more users and 1/1000 would have been amazing. The difference between $0 and $1 is gigantic though, and a hard ask for content in most cases.

stavrosOP1y ago

Yeah, I guess that's true, but it's something that can be worked on and optimized, and I have a feeling the OP hasn't focused much on actually making enough money to pay employees.

ihid1y ago

We're not shutting down :)

But yes, rather than shutting down, I'd probably just put the whole thing behind a paywall to try and keep it alive.

stavrosOP1y ago

Well yes, I mean "maintenance mode" or whatever it is. You've built a really valuable service, if you want some help with maybe reducing costs, I'd be happy to have a chat at some point, I have experience in running things on budget hardware.

wyclif1y ago

Please do not give up. You are doing something that I think is very important in the educational space.

j / k navigate · click thread line to collapse

0 pointsstavros1y ago0 comments

Even if it gives a few useful features to subscribers, that's better than shutting down.

0 comments

dustincoates1y ago

They have a paid tier, called insiders, although you can also "pay" through helping other users on the site: https://exercism.org/insiders

stavrosOP1y ago

I don't know how much effort they've put into experimenting with pricing, but it'd be worth trying to increase donations, especially for such a well-designed site.

joker991y ago

Never knew they had this, signed up immediately :) Exercism is worthy of 120$ a year and worth its weight in gold. It has helped me learn Rust, Swift and Kotlin and I'll be forever greatful!

sroussey1y ago

I’ve had things with more users and 1/1000 would have been amazing. The difference between $0 and $1 is gigantic though, and a hard ask for content in most cases.

stavrosOP1y ago

Yeah, I guess that's true, but it's something that can be worked on and optimized, and I have a feeling the OP hasn't focused much on actually making enough money to pay employees.

ihid1y ago

We're not shutting down :)

But yes, rather than shutting down, I'd probably just put the whole thing behind a paywall to try and keep it alive.

stavrosOP1y ago

wyclif1y ago

Please do not give up. You are doing something that I think is very important in the educational space.

j / k navigate · click thread line to collapse