Almost all ‘lifetime subs’ are scams; a company has to be massive to support it and if it doesn’t work out for smaller companies, the consequences don’t matter anyway.
It doesn't actually have to be lifetime to be well worth it, though. For services with recurring fees there's obviously a break-even point that's simple to calculate. And often you can expect that recurring fee will increase at some point, so that break-even point will often come sooner than expected.
I bought an Emby Premier subscription 8 years ago for $120. You can also pay yearly at $55 dollars. So even if it's not _actually_ a "lifetime" it's been well worth it and pays for itself in a little over two years.
I took a lifetime VPN sub. It always puzzled me why they'd do that, what with the operational cost. It lasted a bit over 10y, which is still a good deal, but not lifetime.
Does failing after 10 years count as a failure? Cause living for the next 10 years is not really that difficult, and the relevant people will still likely be around.
Sure, the offer might as well be for 90 years, or even 50 years without much practical difference, but if it was a bit more honest and said "50 years", would you still call it a money grab?
The fact remains that this will be honored for as long as there are people interested in honoring it. This surely has some value, right?
Yeah, this is really, really, really dumb. There is no guarantee the USA will be around in 100 years (and honestly right now I wouldn't bet on the "staying around" side), let alone WordPress.
I think it should be illegal for companies to make any sort of guarantee like this longer than some specified timespan, backed up by some level of "corporate actuarial analysis" around how likely the company is to exist at the end of the term. Bankruptcies happen all the time and they essentially wipe out the claims of customers.
Domain names have existed for about 50 years [1], much longer than web browsers or blogs, so them being around for another 100 doesn't seem like a stretch. But I would agree that their relevance will diminish further.
A money grab from the people of WordPress? The company that has probably done the most for the development of the web? I find it hard to see it that way.
they have atleast ensured a great many people are dealing with regularly patching crap, and taking care of fallout, from what is arguably one of the most insecure piles of garbage EVER WRITTEN
100 years is long enough that the consequences of failure are nil. Nobody who is pushing this program will be alive to deal with any fallout.
It reminds me of the subtle attitude of people making poor engineering decisions because they’ll be long gone by the time payment comes due.