Dear Timemaps users,
We have taken the decision to pause new subscriptions to the Premium service for the following reasons.
- Since its inception, Timemaps has offered well-researched, high quality historical information, and continues to do so. However, increasing use of AI has led to an internet-wide downturn in traffic coming to content-rich sites, and Timemaps has not been exempt from this.
- As a certain proportion of visitors to the site have subscribed to our Premium service, subscription levels have also declined.
- Unless some sorts of limits are placed on the use of AI – which is highly unlikely and, quite frankly, highly undesirable (at least, not in terms of most of its applications) – then there seems to be no prospect of this situation changing.
- The Premium service is expensive to run. With the prospect of the decline in subscriptions continuing, there will come a point where it is no longer viable. We have therefore decided to take the step of pausing new subscriptions now, rather than waiting for it to cease to be viable.
- We sincerely hope that this situation will resolve itself soon, and in any case, current subscriptions will be supported until they expire.
- We are actively exploring avenues which will enable us to continue our Premium service, but if we are unable to do so, subscribers will not be able to renew their accounts.
The decision to close the Premium service to new subscribers has not been taken lightly. We are particularly sad that the many users who have renewed their subscriptions year after year may not be able to do so in the future. However, as I said above, we are working on how we can continue the service, and will keep you updated as the situation develops.
Kind regards,
Peter Britton