The intent is to make the voluntary payment system that’s always been in place more transparent and consistent with typical subscription models. The idea is that the core of CT will remain completely free, but some features will be premium. The thing is, I’m pretty sure these “premium” features have always been premium for those who’ve paid in the past 12 months.
That said, I do expect it to be a bit fuzzy in some ways. We’ll see. For example, I emailed a receipt to add wine to my cellar yesterday and it didn’t work. Nothing happened. I tried again today. Nothing. Even though I’d received an email a couple of weeks ago about re-upping my annual payment by a date in the middle of this coming April, it seems I’ve been cut off since I hadn’t paid since April 2022. Either the feature is down or I’m not currently premium. In either case, this should be EXPLICIT!!! If the facility is down, then the import pending page (e.g. Bulk Import - CellarTracker) should have a banner indicating that. If the feature is not available to me due to not being a paid up member, the system should send an auto-reply with that information. Frustrating. There’s nothing I can find on my own Profile page about (lack of) access to premium features, just “Your next payment due date is 4/18/2024”
But all in all, it seems they are investing in some upgrades. Hopefully, some of them will be some of the things I’ve wanted for years.
Genuinely curious, what do you use CT for then? I know reading others’ TNs is valuable, but why add bottles to an inventory management system if you don’t use it?
Kidding aside about the Meomi and Two buck (2016 dollars) Chuck, it is a lot of money for those of us who don’t cellar super expensive wines. I’ve got plenty of wines with great aging potential that I love (e.g. some Loire Cab Franc producers), but which were purchased for $20 - $30. Paying ~$3 per bottle cumulative over a decade+ on those is 10-15% of the purchase price!
I am very good about logging wines in when I buy them, and it provides a reminder of who to pester when shipping season arrives. I am much, much less meticulous in logging things when I drink them.
I like what CT provides me as a service. I try to make the most out of the features provided. When I’ve had issues, Eric has been super responsive. The cost, if you like it then pay for it. If you don’t, freeload or do the spreadsheet thing. No one is forcing anyone to do anything so I don’t get what the big deal is honestly. It’s the best things I’ve seen for my habits.
Like @Neal.Mollen, i have a backlog of bottles I need to remove given i have a fixed space. I pay for what I have and I true up twice a year when the time presents. I like being able to check off the things that have come in. It’s helped me reign in some things id have forgotten about.
For some, community tasting notes are valuable. For others (me, for example) they are not (unless from people I know).
As a victim of Wine Owners, CellarTracker is the gold standard of wine cellar management software. I pay for Wine Owners as part of my storage agreement with Vino Vault. It is awful. I also happily pay for CellarTracker (because Wine Owners is shit).
I guess the answer to your question is that they are likely in the process of building it. That’s why Eric raised money from investors to hire people to build it. Clearly there is a vision for a paid service above and beyond what features CT has right now, but we aren’t privy to all the details yet.
I will say that, given the funding raise, investors likely believe that CT has not fully monetized its user base yet. We’ll see what changes that ultimately brings.
