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Close free registrations
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Description

Overview

We're going to close Free registrations for the foreseeable future. This will go into effect January 1, 2022.

Background

See forum topic: https://discuss.write.as/t/potential-changes-to-the-free-plan/3740

Implementation

We'll need to disable the free account signup path, update our marketing to no longer discuss the free plan as much, and tighten up some other avenues where users can get in. Throughout, we'll need to keep certain stakeholders in mind: libraries and teachers using us as a free tool, our fan fiction community, etc.

Anonymous publishing

This will remain open and unchanged, to continue supporting our mobile apps and the signup-free, simple utility of the web app.

Spam filters

With this change, can relax the spam filters, so fewer people are wrongly caught in them.

  • Don't flag posts with links when a user was referred by a paying user

Registration and accounts

  • Remove Free registration form after "close" date
  • Limit blog visibility and publishing after 14 days for non-invited, non-paid accounts (this prevents working around the paywall by signing up then not entering payment info)
  • Limit blog visibility and publishing 14 days after subscription end date for accounts paying for 1 year or less (?)

Marketing pages

  • Change /start page to prioritize Pro and Team tiers
    • Allow Free registrations for now, but notify that we're closing them soon
    • Automatically disable the flow when the "close" date passes
  • Add "About" page that talks about the platform itself
  • Move current About page to /about/company

User Invites

We'll leave this as an avenue for people to get a free account, especially for our best existing users and the stakeholders mentioned above. But we'll limit how invite links work:

  • Free users can invite 3 people
  • Pro users can invite 10 people
  • 5-year Pro users can invite an unlimited number of people
  • Silenced users can't create invites
  • Invite links won't work when the user is silenced

Revisions and Commits

Event Timeline

matt triaged this task as High priority.Dec 8 2021, 11:39 PM
matt created this task.
matt moved this task from Restricted Project Column to Restricted Project Column on the Restricted Project board.
matt added a commit: Restricted Diffusion Commit.Dec 10 2021, 7:13 PM
matt added a commit: Restricted Diffusion Commit.
matt added a commit: Restricted Diffusion Commit.Dec 29 2021, 11:41 PM
matt added a commit: Restricted Diffusion Commit.Jan 2 2022, 9:32 PM
matt added a commit: Restricted Diffusion Commit.Jan 20 2022, 6:45 PM

Some items weren't finished, but we've had this in place for months now.