The opinions about the removal of some contents from the free version
-
(I’m not native English speaker, so this comment will mostly use google translate)
I am a person from Taiwan who has been using Windy for more than 7 years and is still a heavy user today. First of all, I would like to thank the official, who has been maintaining the Windy website for several years, and has continued to add more interesting and practical functions. During this time, I kept introducing Windy to my friends, family, and even my Atmospheric Science teacher to show how much I love your product.
But today, I'm quite dissatisfied with your team's decision to charge some common free contents.First of all, I myself know that the 10-day numerical forecast is not accurate, according to the Chaos Theory. I usually don't look at the forecast for more than 7 days. But I still don't think it's a good business strategy to charge for features that are popular among users, because I think it's a very disrespectful behavior for users. Because you lock up the function without warning and charge, and put your own "advertisement" on the screen, I think you are just trying to take more money from us, and at the same time break the long-standing trust of users and your team.
You said that you are a small team with a lot of maintenance expenses, and the Premium is a correct choice. Yes, I agree that the Premium is helpful to the operation of your team. I also considered subscribing to your service before; but for the Premium, it should be to add more interesting and more professional content, such as updating higher-resolution data that your administrator has mentioned lately, or you can also add more professional content such as vorticity layer and ensemble forecasts This is what Premium should have, and it will also attract users to subscribe to it; instead of charging for existing, well-known and popular free contents, this will not only It will not allow more people to subscribe to Premium, and it will also ruin your reputation. Therefore, it is common sense for people to complain on the forum these days.
In addition, these functions of yours are actually have alternative. For example, Taiwan’s Central Weather Bureau also has an interactive numerical forecast interface like yours. And if you want to see 12-hour satellite cloud images, in addition to the Central Weather Bureau, RAMMB also provides satellite cloud images. If you want to understand typhoon ensemble forecasts, you can also search through websites such as Tropicaltidbits. Furthermore, Tropicaltidbits also provides global numerical models and other forecast products . If you choose to lock the 10-day forecast, I can check it with the Central Weather Bureau or Tropicaltidbits, but it will be more difficult to check the data of a single spot; or if you lock the 6-hour satellite image, I can also look at RAMMB , and there are even more satellite products to choose from, so if you lock these existing contents from free users, it will only increase people's dislike for you, and they will choose not to use Windy, and it will not make free users switch to Premium .
Furthermore, such a decision will reduce the trust between our users and your officials, because now that you have locked up the 10-day forecast and the satellite and radar for more than 6 hours. What if you are short of money in the future? Will you lock more free contents? Will the next lock be 5-day cumulative rainfall? Or the Maximum Gusts? Cloud type? Or 3-hour rainfall? Your credit is really gone!
In the end, because your team’s decision is really disappointing, as long as the original free version content continues to be locked, I will give you a 1-star negative review. Besides, I will not recommend Windy to anyone, and I will remind my friend about this, and told them not to subscribe to Premium. I will gradually reduce the chance of using Windy, and will start to turn to other related websites for inquiries, because I don't know what free contents will be locked in the future.
So Bring The Good Old Windy Back !!
-
Agree, I have been using it as a rough guide for passage planning (sailing) for years. There are other sites available for this information, but enjoy the versatility and depth of different observations. Would much rather have annoying adverts than a subscription. I will look else where for long range guestimate charts!
