You should be grateful and happy for the people that helped you in your journey, they made it! You know, apps are not AI (yet), what you used for free was built by someone that deserves the success.

But that’s true of everything we use. Someone made that fork you use. That plate. The shoes you wear. Same for an app. You don’t deserve anything. If you make something, and release it into the world, you have a responsibility. Not a reward. A reward may come. People may pay you for your services or your novelty but in no way shape or form are you deserving of it. Deserving of something is a 3rd person observation. You can not demand that you deserve anything.

> But that’s true of everything we use. Someone made that fork you use

I paid a fair price for my forks and plates and shoes, I don't need to be grateful for that. Using a platform for free and then complaining that now they focus on making money is not the same.

> Deserving of something is a 3rd person observation. You can not demand that you deserve anything.

I'm not OP nor Replit owner.

>I paid a fair price for my forks and plates and shoes, I don't need to be grateful for that. Using a platform for free and then complaining that now they focus on making money is not the same.

They were focused on making money back then too. Nobody's complaining that they were trying to make money!

If someone is grateful that the old product existed at the time, because it helped them, it's completely understandable and valid that they'd be sad that it no longer exists to help other people. What there is now has a hundred almost-the-same alternatives[0]; it sounds like what they used to be was unique.

[0] the article quotes a claim about “the first agent-based coding experience in the world” "last fall" but that seems to ignore not-as-successful earlier things like AutoGPT that had code agent projects by early 2024 if not before, with initial "agent" behavior in 2023.