Subscriptions
Most companies make the subscription the trap: easy in, quiet charges, hard out. We do the opposite, on purpose. The short version is two sentences, and they are the whole policy.
We ask first. Off by default. The default state of your money is still, not flowing. No dollar moves without an affirmative, unexpired consent you create this term — asking each term is constitutional here, not a setting we could quietly change.
The monthly ask, not the monthly charge
The renewal is a recurring first-contact — twelve honest impressions a year, not a settings screen you forgot about. It arrives where you brace for "your card was charged," and instead asks a real question: five seconds, one tap to say yes, attached to a moment you actually used the thing, with its own evidence. Never a cold billing email.
- Five seconds, one tap — saying yes is trivial. So is saying nothing.
- Attached to use — the ask arrives with evidence: you got three good runs this month. Not a date on a calendar you never see.
- Genuinely fine with no — a no, or no answer, is a door held open, not a fight. We would rather earn the next yes than keep a charge you forgot.
What this looks like
Three moments where most billing is silent, and ours speaks:
- The monthly ask
- "You got 3 good runs this month. Keep the lights on?" — evidence first, five seconds, one tap, genuinely fine with no.
- The Fallow Credit
- "Welcome back. Last month was on us — you'd paid for a month you never used, so we called it square. Pick up where you left off." No tax for a fallow season; your place waits.
- Honoring silence
- "No answer, no charge. We'll be here if you come back." The absence of a fight is the point.
We choose this even if it earns less. The confidence about the product is what lets the humility about the billing read as strength instead of apology — they ship together or not at all. If a kindness ever starts reading as a tactic, it stops being one; we ship the first and never the second.
status This page presents the model. It is a registered principle (The Consent-First Default), not billing software — no subscription is wired on this site in V1, and this page stands up none. When real billing lands, it lands on exactly the rule stated here: ask first, off by default, no dollar without an unexpired consent created this term. Said plainly rather than implied.
The same posture runs through everything the Department makes — read a different way. The things you can actually get today are the Gifts (always free, no subscription at all) and the Store.