Remember what "subscription" used to mean? - eviltoast

The article about the “subscription” HP ink made me realise something.

Subscriptions aren’t a new idea at all. You could subscribe to paper magazines. And you got to keep them.

I’m just clearing up my old house and it’s filled with tons of old tech magazines. Lots of useful knowledge here. Wanna know how Windows and Mac compared in 1993? It’s in here. All the forgotten technologies? Old games, old phones, whatever? You’ll find it.

Now, granted. You’d only get one magazine a month. Not a whole library of movies or games or comic books.

But still, the very definition of subscription has shifted. Now, the common meaning is “you only get to use these things as long as you’re paying”. Nobody even thinks it could mean anything else.

Besides, it doesn’t only apply to services that offer entire libraries. Online magazines still exist in a similar form as the paper ones. But you only get to access them while your “subscription” is active. Even the stuff you had while you were paying.

BTW I’m not throwing my old magazines away. I won’t have the space, but a friend is taking it all. If they wouldn’t, I’d give them to a library or let someone take them. The online and streaming stuff of today and tomorrow? In 30 years it’ll be gone, forgotten and inaccessible.

  • Rozaŭtuno@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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    1 year ago

    Reading this reminded me of the pc magazine I used to buy when I was in middle school, it always had interesting articles and it came with a CD full of free games and software! Oh, the nostalgia.

    Now, granted. You’d only get one magazine a month. Not a whole library of movies or games or comic books.

    I feel like it didn’t matter as much back then, games used to last longer, we’d replay them a lot and it was common to share them around with your friends. Nowadays a lot of people just rush to finish a game (without really enjoying it) so they can go to the next one. It’s a pseudo-job.

    BTW I’m not throwing my old magazines away. I won’t have the space, but a friend is taking it all. If they wouldn’t, I’d give them to a library or let someone take them.

    Even if no one wants them, there’s always the option of giving them to the Internet Archive.