2

There has been a recent question where the OP later specified in the comments that he's open to paid software as long as he pays once for a lifetime.

Even the Apple's App Store now has a chart for "Pay Once & Play" apps. Source: Apple has a new section in the App Store to highlight games that don't make you keep paying to play

I feel that this is a common enough case to deserve a tag. What do you guys think?

My suggestions for this tag are or

4 Answers 4

Reset to default
7

Though I see your point, I doubt that will be a useful tag. If a user wishes that approach, it should be pointed out with the question itself.

Currently, we don't even have any tag specifying "payed". People who'd accept to pay for software certainly wouldn't reject the very same tools just because they're available for free – so we have the tag for people not willing to pay at all. Just because something like "one-time pay, always play" exists doesn't mean we need a tag for that. A sentence like "I'm willing to pay at max [budget] one-time, but am not interested in re-occuring subscription fees" should suffice. We neither put tags for max-USD50 or low-cost to limit payment, but say to include the budget with the question text ;)

7
  • I agree with the most part People who'd accept to pay for software certainly wouldn't reject the very same tools just because they're available for free – so we have the gratis tag for people not willing to pay at all But people who are not willing to pay more than once can't use the gratis tag, and yet at the same time they would reject a large part of paid software for being a subscription. It's not exactly a budget but more of a personal preference. I agree that it should be pointed out in the question, but a tag might also bring the asker's attention to that
    – Tymric
    Feb 20, 2015 at 11:56
  • 1
    IMHO "drawing attention" is not the purpose of tags (I've just checked our help-center for a definition, but couldn't find any). As Meta in this case is intended to find a consensus: Why don't you simply downvote my answer, and post an opposite one with exactly the reasoning from your comment? Sure I'm likely to downvote that then – but others can indicate their opinions voting up/down as well, and in a couple of days we should see a tendency (for those who don't know: that's what votes for here at Meta – not rating the content, but declare your opinion).
    – Izzy Mod
    Feb 20, 2015 at 12:08
  • 1
    I think the main purpose of tags is to narrow down the answers and subgroup questions to facilitate searching. I'm not opposed to your answer, just not convinced yet. I agree that it's a better idea to leave it for voting
    – Tymric
    Feb 20, 2015 at 12:18
  • 1
    Same with me, Timmy: As written, I see your point – and I also share the idea of tags for searching. I'm open to both variants, though I'm currently tending to what I wrote in my answer. Like you, I'm not "absolutely opposed" but neither convinced – so let the feet decide (voting). Maybe we'll also have some "enlighning comments" to finally convince us one way or the other :)
    – Izzy Mod
    Feb 20, 2015 at 12:23
  • @Izzy I added an answer that could convince you.
    – Angelo Fuchs
    Feb 23, 2015 at 10:07
  • I've actually read it before seeing your comment :) While I can better warm to pay-once than to one of the other two, my opinion stays "neutral". Will we need a tag to indicate subscription-based payment as well? I already see questions carrying all 3 tags then...
    – Izzy Mod
    Feb 23, 2015 at 10:17
  • @Izzy if someone comes up with that and cares for the concept, then yes. I don't think it will come up as I can't think of somebody who prefers paying regularly, but the world continues to amaze me with the people in it and the variety of their opinions.
    – Angelo Fuchs
    Feb 23, 2015 at 11:00
2

A tag could serve to indicate that the asker is only interested in softwares that do not require regular or additional payments after downloading. It would represent a superset of the tag along with "Pay once" software.

3
  • If that gets used add "pay-once" as a synonym, please.
    – Angelo Fuchs
    Feb 23, 2015 at 9:49
  • 2
    Nobody would look for single-transaction or associate that with payment unless being explicitly told it's supposed to be connected. Just seeing the tag I'd rather connect it with databases. And no, most people don't read tag excerpts, let alone tag wikis. If we'd create such a tag at all, it must be easily identified – so it should rather be pay-once, as even single-payment is ambiguous.
    – Izzy Mod
    Feb 23, 2015 at 10:06
  • @Izzy I agree. pay-once is more intuitive. I'm voting for Angelo's answer
    – Tymric
    Feb 23, 2015 at 10:25
1

tl;dr: Use .

Lets see if the tag has merit by the guidelines of the help center, in particular in comparison to .

  1. Describes the topic of the question: Good. As much as gratis does.
  2. Connecting experts with questions: Good. A little less then gratis, but still.
  3. Mark questions that are relevant to you: Good. You do care about that concept.
  4. One should avoid creating new tags if possible: Good I don't think this information is not well searchable without that tag.
  5. When naming a tag, think about how someone would search for that subject. Bad. People would search for . Maybe a synonym can clear that out. But has the same problem.
  6. Works as the only tag on the question: Bad But, so is .
  7. No subjective tags: Good. The function is clear and unambiguous.

Score: 5/7 - same as . I think it will find much less use but "too narrow" is not a problem for a tag. I say just add on a bunch of questions that match it and see how they fare.

1
  • 1
    I agree with pay-once. Thanks for the explanation. I'm convinced by it, but will give it some time to see how the votes turn out
    – Tymric
    Feb 23, 2015 at 10:28
1

Assuming we would have such a tag, I think it would certainly be one of those tags that should only be used if it’s a required restriction.

So for a question tagged with (or , or similar), answers should not recommend gratis software.

This is probably not what OPs would want/mean. To circumvent this problem, the tag would have to be named or so. Ugh.

(I think we don’t need such a tag at all, so I agree with Izzy’s answer.)

1
  • 1
    My initial thought was that single-transaction also encompasses the gratis tag since it's basically still a single transaction of 0 units of currency at the time of the download. Right now the scale is tipping towards no tag, which is fair enough as long as the requirements are clear in the body of the question.
    – Tymric
    Feb 23, 2015 at 16:19

You must log in to answer this question.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged .