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