I think many of us have noticed the trend that modern tech just... Doesn't make things better. There's little to be excited about, because anything even remotely innovative is going to be filled with tracking, ads, etc.
Let's say you had a bored software engineer or 2 at your disposal and the goal was to improve something you do often, by creating an application or website that isn't owned and enshittified by a megacorp looking to extract maximum short term value - what would your project be? Is it something you'd be willing to pay for, maybe with a free tier available?
The reason I'm asking is that I'm a software engineer and in the current hard-ass market, while I'm lucky enough to have a stable job, I know that experience alone isn't cutting it anymore in the recruitment process. You need to be able to show side projects too. Plus I have an unemployed software engineer friend who also has no interesting projects to show. So if we make any money out of it, that's awesome. If we don't, it's just something for our github accounts. Probably the latter.
PS: Yes, I know this is not a tech community - I want ideas from regular, non-techy people too.
PPS: This doesn't have to be something in your personal life, it could also be something that would help you at work if you had it.
So I read your comment and did some research. Mint seemed like the best example that a small team could reasonably get started on.
Some of the original people behind Mint founded Monarch and the CEO put out a very reasonable article on why your best bet would be to replace it with a subscription based alternative. Essentially - since anything free is eventually going to become an ad company, the company will never have your best interests in mind.
I hate the subscription model, but I somewhat agree - unless we're talking about offline software, there's always maintenance involved, also further development. If your software is ad-supported, it's on shakier ground.
I don't think we're likely to see another Mint. The more functionality you want, the more expensive it is to develop. BUT if what you're looking for is just the core functionality then yes, that could reasonably be ad supported, or even free and open source.
They're no bulwark against ads, but how is a free service supposed to be sustained? Free only works if it's offline/self-hosted and open source IMO.
All depends on whether the company providing the service is public too I guess. As soon as it's public, you have shareholders to please and then you HAVE to squeeze every cent out of your customers. Tale as old as time.
I'll bring an example of a subscription service that still hasn't enshittified: Mullvad VPN. It's still a fiver a month and you can't pay extra for extra functionality. It just always costs the same.
There have been many times I've passed on something because it had a subscription fee but would have bought as a one time purchase. I feel like everyone's forgotten that it's an option.
Eh, we've also started expecting continuous updates of our games and apps. That's why SaaS is such a popular model.
You used to be able to buy Photoshop and own that version forever. Now it's a SaaS. Personally I prefer the old model too, but a lot of people prefer to get updates apparently.
It's expensive but I like YNAB. All the functionality Mint had and more, no ads.