New MailWasher - ugh

[timns]

I was just reading the recent RoboForm upgrade thread (thanks, I'll stick with v6!) and something that Carol Haynes said rang a nasty bell. And I quote:

"It's called taking people hostage:

Sell a product with free lifetime upgrades/updates
Promote widely and get millions of people hooked in to the product
Change the licensing model"

Does anyone else here feel exactly the same way about MailWasher? I really really regret moving away from MW6. It was *not at all clear* that I was moving from a purchased product to a yearly license. And on top of that, the new MW is pretty crummy for a multitude of reasons.

Is there anything else out there I should look at?

[rjbull]

Partial quote from MailWasher Newsletter <[email protected]> dated 20 December 2010:

In this issue:

    * MailWasher Pro 2011 Released
    * New lifetime license plan!
[...]
Since the release of 2010, we’ve been keeping a close eye
on your feedback, suggestions, bug reports and concerns
and have updated MailWasher accordingly. MailWasher Pro
2011 is the result of all of these fixes and much more!

It’s faster and more responsive, it has a cleaner more
simplified (and less cartoonish) interface, it’s easier
to understand and comes with some really cool new
customization features. So as they say, “out with the old,
and in with the new!”
[...]
New lifetime license plan!
===========================
No more subscription fees! Many of you told us you wanted
ongoing updates, support etc but didn't feel comfortable
with the idea of an annual subscription fee.

So we've introduced the MailWasher Pro lifetime license
which gives you free updates and support, free upgrades
to all new versions and most importantly exempts you from
any annual fees for the lifetime of the product!

If this sounds like you, we recommend upgrading to a lifetime
license plan.

Upgrade to lifetime license
https://secure.firet...items/add/mw2010-1-0

I gave up on MW ages ago.  Now I use Magic Mail Monitor, which is free, but the last update was 2007 - and it isn't Bayesian, if you want that.

[timns]

Thanks for the post! I'd been on the MW forums a while back - must have just missed this stuff by a few days.

[Bionic71]

New lifetime license plan!

 

And old users who were on this plan already are they now supposed to buy a new lifetime license plan.

Thanks but no Thanks 

[xtabber]

Does anyone else here feel exactly the same way about MailWasher? I really really regret moving away from MW6. It was *not at all clear* that I was moving from a purchased product to a yearly license. And on top of that, the new MW is pretty crummy for a multitude of reasons.

-timns (December 20, 2010, 04:20 PM)

For an explanation of why Mailwasher Pro went to a subscription model, see here: http://forum.firetru....php?f=50&t=6550

I can't say I blame them. It costs money to keep software up to date, and $9.95 a year for two computers is not at all extortion IMHO. And if you have a MW6 license, there is nothing to stop you from re-installing it and using it forever.

MW 2011 isn't blazingly fast (nothing running on the .NET framework is!), but I like it better than MW6, so I'll gladly pay them $10/year to maintain and improve it.  Note that a $59.95 license is like paying for 6 years of subscription discounted in advance. Who knows where we'll be in 2017?