In the world of computing, and particularly with respect to the internet, we talk about subscriptions all the time. We subscribe to mailing lists, to RSS and ATOM feeds, newsletters and podcasts on a daily basis. Sometimes we even unsubscribe too. It’s just a fact of life. The concept is simple – just like a newspaper subscription you sign up to receive the latest whatever-it-is as and when it becomes available. Easy.

Today I was listening to a podcast of The Geoff Show, which is basically a regurgitated commercial radio show, but a good one. On this particular show, Geoff was explaining to the regular radio listeners about the podcast and how they could download it to their computers, all the time trying to stick to understandable English. Then one thing he said hit me:

If you don’t yet subscribe to the podcast – subscribe is a scary word because it sounds like it’s going to cost you some money – it’s not – it’s just signing up for it – you need to go to our website…

Oh, wait. Subscribe sounds like it’s going to cost you money? Well, yes, I guess it does. In fact if you think of any real-world subscriptions;- newspapers, magazines, clubs, it’s all about paying in advance for something that you then receive in instalments. The dictionary even defines it as such, and you have to dig quite deep to find a definition that isn’t totally about payment, and even then those definitions seem to relate entirely to online subscriptions.

Ladies and Gents, we have chosen the wrong word. Of course, there’s not a lot we can do about that now, but we really need to be cognisant of the potential for a general public audience to misapprehend. In the real world, subscriptions cost money. In our world, most subscriptions are free. No problem, so long as we remember to communicate that clearly.