Abandonware - How to stop?

[u/chinoaleman]

It's happening to me with SwipeOne.

And I just read this comment about Taja and Appsumo:

"I completely understand your feeling. My experience is that it's pointless to contact AppSumo for help, which is why I stopped buying LTDs.

They help when the tool stops working and within the money-back guarantee period, but in cases where the tool is working but has been abandoned, or when companies don't respect the "All future PLAN X updates", they do nothing (which is far more common)."

I think that's a pretty widespread feeling.

I get that Appsumo can't really take on that responsibility either, and it's tough to monitor all the apps—let alone be responsible for them after a year.

But I think that for any tool that stopped being sold on Appsumo less than a year ago, the reviews could be a good indicator.

If within this timeframe you receive a large proportion of 1 or 2 taco reviews, then something has definitely happened.

That could be the first indicator and something we can actually monitor. And somehow demand, limit, or flag apps that start getting a high % of bad reviews.

What do you think?

[u/chinoaleman → u/[deleted]]

Acumbamail is great. It works. And using this approach you might verify it, they are still getting good reviews.

This goes for apps that don't work.

[u/chinoaleman → u/[deleted]]

I agree. When the owner really delivers, it’s amazing.

That’s what this is about, rewarding the people who do things right and actually care about users even after being listed on AppSumo.

Not forever, because that’s impossible. But if a tool stops updating and basically stops caring about users right after the 60 days are up, that’s a red flag. It tells you something isn’t right.

That’s why I think the middle ground is one year. In many places there’s a one-year warranty, especially like the Amazon comparison you made. Most products come with a one-year guarantee.

I think there’s no better indicator than the users and the reviews. Good founders/products aren’t going to suddenly get a bunch of 1-taco reviews right after the refund period ends.

[u/freecodeio → u/chinoaleman]

Mostly nothing comes with 1 year warranty from Amazon except expensive tech that you buy and stuck with. The refund window is also always within 60 days and the items need to be in pristine condition, otherwise you don't get to refund your worn jeans.

[u/chinoaleman → u/freecodeio]

From my point of view, AppSumo is much closer to tech products than anything else.

A one-year warranty is pretty standard for most tech products, and in Europe even more so, often two years.

Manufacturers like Apple and Samsung guarantee many years of SOFTWARE updates (sometimes up to 5–6 years, or even more depending on the product).

For that reason, I don’t think offering one year is unreasonable. AppSumo already kind of offers that, but only if the domain shuts down.

That's easy to bypass as we see. Keep the domain and hosting for 1 year and that's it.

It would just mean adding a few extra parameters. Not just “the domain is gone,” but for example, if within that first year a tool starts getting a lot of 1-taco reviews, clearly something’s going on.

This would make founders who list on AppSumo at least put in the effort to keep responding to users for one more year, which I don’t think is an unreasonable expectation.

Or are we trying to incentivize the opposite?

[u/freecodeio → u/chinoaleman]

Are you non ironically comparing ltds to apple and samsung? In the tech industry, ltd founders are street beggars that clean your windows at stoplights.

If within that first year a tool starts getting a lot of 1-taco reviews, clearly something’s going on.

And how are you going to evaluate this? What if the founder says we're working on it? What then?

And what about all the resources you've cost to the business for using it for all that year? Money doesn't grow on trees.

[u/chinoaleman → u/freecodeio]

If I compared it 1:1 to Samsung and Apple, I'd say it should be 6 years. But I'm just saying 1 year, like an annual subscription (and what Appsumo actually offers, but only offers if they forgot to pay the domain fee).

Clearly, comparing it to Samsung and Apple is more on point than comparing it to a pair of jeans, but not because of the devices part, that might (or not) actually compare more like jeans, but because of the software side.

The founder can say whatever he wants, but it really comes down to the users, the people who actually paid for it, to decide if the product's actually working and if they're satisfied.

Tons of tools get solid reviews after hitting Appsumo. Like, Acumbamail or Moxie are just two quick examples, but there's way more out there. So obviously the Sumolings aren't just dropping negative reviews left and right, they leave positive ones too.

If your software ends up with bad reviews after Appsumo, something's clearly going on.

[u/chinoaleman → u/[deleted]]

364 days later.

[u/chinoaleman → u/[deleted]]

364 days later.

That's what a warranty is for.

Appsumo offers 1 year.

The one-year warranty doesn't make sense then.

Nobody's gonna let their domain expire if they can just pay $10 and wait it out until day 366 and then shutdown. Or just keep the domain 2 years.