I didn't even know anyone was frustrated because 1) they had mentioned they would be providing a paid tier in the past, and 2) I don't know how to break it to you. Shit costs money. I'd been wondering for a WHILE how they were keeping the site running with no ads no paid tier and seemingly no income while the number of users steadily went up.
Gdocs is sustained by income from not only Google's paid/pro version, but also revenue from ads place in google searches and on youtube, sales of physical google products, and every other part of the google empire. Microsoft word/office is 1) not free to use, and 2) similarly funded through the multitude of microsoft products (digital and physical). So unless you want the Ellipsus interface itself to be swarmed with ads, or to have your number of documents limited unless you pay for more, this is really a pretty fucking good option. It allows them to make money from those who are willing and able to pay for the extra "bonus" features, while preserving the core functionality of the site for everyone, including free users.
And the other thing about the paid tier is that you pay for a while (all at once, annually or monthly a max of two years) and then you own it forever. They straight up said "Once you pay you will have access to every update that comes to the paid tier forever."
Whether you personally are willing to pay for it or not, I think we should be glad to see an alternative to the "forever subscription" model that currently dominates our world.
Paying monthly and annually are there as options for people who can't afford a single $100 payment. Yes, those options are more expensive in the long run, but it helps support the site in the long run, and for some people that's what they are able to afford.
They also said they're going to continue updating and adding to the free version in addition to the paid version. So even if you aren't personally paying for it, the fact that anyone is willing to pay to support the site helps to fund improvements for everyone. Ellipsus is by far the best anti-ai writing program I've seen that's accessible online (and thus from multiple devices), and the vast majority of its features are free.
I don't really see the point of getting mad about a paid tier when nothing (other than a feature they stated to have low usership anyways) is being removed from the free version. For the vast majority of ellipsus users, your experience literally will not change at all. Well, except for the fact that the site will (hopefully) receive enough money to survive and continue providing a free, anti-ai, online alternative to gdocs or microsoft.
Not to mention that 60,000+ users is not a small amount, and hosting web servers and storing data for that many people is a huge task! The materials required for all of that are not inexpensive, especially with the inflation of costs of computer parts due to AI. (Which, in case you forgot, is exactly what ellipsus has pledged to stand against.)
Very few things in life are free, especially not in the world we currently live in. It would be great if we didn't live in a capitalist hellscape and cool websites and programs could exist forever with unlimited capacity with no income or funding, but if that were true, then none of the issues ellipsus was designed to fight against would exist in the first place.
If you want anti-ai programs to exist, and especially if you want more people to use those programs, you can't get mad when those programs find ways to fund their existence and expansion.
