Hello Jukka,

Yes, the licensing policy (now based on usage – Portal Limits) and prices have all been revised to be much fairer (although you must remember all previous subscriptions were for 6 months, and the Enterprise license is now for a year of updates.

We are also introducing single product licensing for between $15 and $40 – as you can see by the HomePage module here. The product suites will work out much cheaper than the sum of the individual parts (and include future new modules, of which there are a few planned). Also, the new prices are not a subscription – it is a one off payment. I will be introducing a way of repaying at a lower cost – for example if you wish to repurchase the another year of updates before the first year runs out then you will get it at 30% of the cost (to be decided upon later). This is effectively like a discounted subscription but I do not want people to be forced to pay a recurring fee – this way you can choose to pay if you wish to.

Unfortunately it was completely unsustainable selling all of our products for $30 – with the average module costing between $20 and £60 on Snowcovered, it was just not feasible. For example, there is an Events module on Snowcovered selling for $125 – but I believe the Smart-Thinker Events module is better. As always – once you give something it is hard to take away, even if it is following market value. I was hoping I could phase in these changes and keep existing subscribers happy.

The important thing to note is that there is NO change to existing subscribers and module versions (and new module versions for those subscribers!) This is because it would be unfair to introduce restrictions suddenly. The portal licensing and price changes apply ONLY to new customers. I thought long and hard about cancelling subscribers subscriptions, and I decided to leave all active subscriptions as they are as a “Thank You” (I still have people paying $20 with all source (the prices from end of 2004 ;)  This means that if your subscription is active then this does NOT affect you at all (and wont until you choose to end it).

Funnily enough I get the odd irate email from subscribers who don’t realize it is recurring – I always refund them of course! I am really not trying to cheat anyone out of money but at the same time I have to be realistic if I want to continue to provide a service.

As per my blog I will be working on Smart-Thinker 2 more FULL days a week – I expect the modules to mature greatly as you can see from the recent activity, site redesign and surveys. I have a lot of very cool features planned and really aim to provide full value for the amount you pay. In December I start work on it full time and then you will see a massive increase in output. I do not plan on increasing prices any more for some time (I may need to tweak portal limits to suit the masses but this is only to make it fairer (prices SHOULD be based on usage I believe)) but if I am to work on it full time then it needs to compensate me for my time..

With your particular case, I will check why you don’t have access now – if you are an active subscriber then you need not worry – I’ll ensure you have access in a moment (from your post it definitely looks like it was just an oversight – apologies!)

For any other existing subscribers reading this – please contact me immediately if you do not have access. There have been a lot of changes on Smart-Thinker recently. Also, if your subscription has recently run out I will consider re-activating you on your initial payment plan, based on a case-by-case basis (dependant on length of duration of subscription).

To conclude – thank you for your support in the past and I assure you that you will see a massive increase in productivity and module value in the next few months! I value your feedback and really want to keep this as open and honest as possible. I am always open to ideas and am happy to tweak things if it requires me to do so.