Wednesday, January 30, 2013

Subscription precession

I started paying for my subscription with plex about two years ago. At that time my subscriptions were due on approximately the 10th of the month. Since then, the day they are due has been moving - slowly but steadily - toward the beginning of the month. This month the subscription date finally fell over to the previous month, meaning I am buying plex at the end of this month instead of the beginning of next month.

This is expected behavior. A "month" subscription lasts 30 days, while a year lasts 365.25 days. This means that you "lose" 5.25 days per year. Below I have circled the day my subscription is due this year in red, and the days it will be due this month in subsequent years in blue. Note the 6 day gap between the 16th and the 10th, which happens because 2016 is a leap year.

 
We lose a month about every 6 years, and losing a full year would take place over a 70 year "grand cycle."

4 comments:

  1. I had to take a look at http://www.eveonline.com/faq/paying-for-eve and it really says monthly plans.... not 30 day plans.

    So how many people did not realize this and want to cry out at CCP for 'unfairness' and only handing out 30 days instead of real months?

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    Replies
    1. You either get deceived on your daily rate, or on your monthly rate, choose one but it can't be neither.

      All Timecodes are actually sold as 30/60 days though; and when you add game time from a plex it does say you are adding 30 days, not a month.

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  2. If they gave out "real" months then that wouldn't be a consistent amount. Is it 28 days (Feb)? Is it 30 days? Is it 31 days?

    I'd rather have a consistent number of days for a constant price. I would prefer to see them clean up the language though; "a month" is misleading.

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  3. The average length of a month is 30.4375 days, which could be rounded to 30.

    Personally, I'm so thrilled to have the opportunity to use the word "precession" that I don't care if the subscription wording is slightly deceptive.

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