gramps
b2036a38e8
The creator raised it as instinct: "who hasn't been screwed over cancelling a sub early to be told that the extra six months remaining are your loss?" Checking the mechanism confirms it, and worse than expected. Microsoft's general position: "Digital goods like apps, add-on content, subscriptions... aren't refundable unless the offer or applicable law states that you're eligible for a refund." Pro-rated refunds on cancel exist only in Canada, Denmark, France, Israel, Korea, Turkey (all lengths) and Finland, Germany, Netherlands, Poland, Portugal (renewals only). Critically: "monthly subscriptions and initial (pre-renewal) purchases aren't eligible for a prorated refund." A first-year annual subscriber who cancels in month 2 loses months 3-12, in most countries, and the developer cannot refund it. That is verbatim the trap the creator named, so we must not build it. => monthly only. Max loss $10, max grievance a rounding error, one fewer product to declare, less support surface. The chargeback argument gets stronger, not weaker: a customer down $89 on an annual cliff disputes through their bank, which is frozen funds and account risk against a solo dev. Monthly bounds that at $10. Also records two rulings: - No .99 prices. "Let's stop with the x.99 stuff - I find that irritating. Just say: ten bucks a month." The convention only makes a price look cheaper, which is incoherent for a brand sold on honesty and no-dark-patterns. - No feature gating, now argued as revenue rather than taste: the free tier's reach is the funnel and the branding flash is an ad running inside other people's content. Pricing model itself stays OPEN in TASKS.md — $10/mo is the lean, and a lifetime product (~$300, the hedge against the no-moat renewal problem) is undecided. The Store revenue share is still unverified: confirm the net, not the list. MyMistakes.md records the actual error: I had offered "just refund anyone who asks" as a mitigation without checking who holds the authority to execute it. Store refunds run through Microsoft, not the developer. The check that followed is what produced this constraint. MONETIZATION.md got the full analysis but is gitignored, so it stayed local.
ytLlive
A creator-proof live-streaming and recording app for YouTube — native Windows (C# / WPF / .NET 8).
Screenshot
Design Principle
This software is so intuitive that even the most right-brained person can easily intuit and use it.
Every feature is measured against this. One-click go-live, sane YouTube defaults, visual scene building, and no dead ends — every action has a visible outcome.
Why ytLlive
OBS treats YouTube as an afterthought; SLOBS is Twitch-first with YouTube bolted on. ytLlive is designed and dedicated to YouTube livestreaming and recording, and to YouTube's specific quirks.
Account Assumption
ytLlive assumes you already have a YouTube creator account — connecting uses "Sign in with Google" to link that existing account. ytLlive does not create accounts. If you don't have a YouTube channel yet, set one up on YouTube first, then connect it here.
Audio Assumption
ytLlive uses your default microphone and desktop/game output — it never hunts for a device or contends for one. It assumes your audio is already configured and working (default input and output set, not hijacked by another app). Audio issues are a Windows/device matter outside ytLlive's scope: we don't debug, detect, or try to fix them. If it doesn't sound right, fix the system's audio settings first — it's on the OS, not on us.
Run
dotnet build # Windows only — WPF
dotnet run
Version Roadmap
v1 is the finished product (creator ruling, 2026-09-01 — there are no v1.x releases).
Everything still queueing lands in v1; anything not on the feature list is on the closed
"Out of product — permanently" list in TASKS.md — read that page before asking for a feature.
What v1 ships: the five-scene director's control surface, webcam + screen capture, media + web + text sources, chat on-stream, the social bar, mic/desktop audio with auto-duck and TRAX, local recording, variable quality tiers with auto step-down, one-click go-live + scheduling, stream resilience (auto-reconnect inside YouTube's grace, one-click back on air), built-in monetization awareness (reward capture, session reports, YPP journey tracker), Alerts — all free and ungated; the one-time license only removes the branding flash.
Structure
| Path | Role |
|---|---|
Models/ |
Scene, Source, WebcamSceneConfig, SceneElement, SceneCatalog, QualityOption, StreamConfig/Health, chat, Socials, BroadcastMetadata, Music, MicStatus |
ViewModels/ |
MainViewModel (partial classes per area) + dialogs: GoLive, CameraPicker, MicPicker, HotkeyConfig, Socials, LiveBroadcastForm |
Services/ |
YouTube (OAuth, streams/broadcasts, chat polling), LayoutStore (SQLite), capture (camera/screen-capture/media-file via FFmpeg), SceneCompositor + FramePump, FFmpeg encoder + RTMP, audio pipeline (WASAPI loopback + mic, mixer, filters, ducker, limiter, TRAX), SocialValidator, notifications, hotkeys, SceneGraph, ChatOverlayLayer |
Helpers/ |
ViewModelBase, RelayCommand, ImageCache, AppLog, TokenStore (DPAPI), OAuthCredentials, converters |
Themes/ |
Controls.xaml — the dark-theme control styles, merged once in App.xaml |
MainWindow.xaml |
Dark-theme control surface: thumbnails + central preview, two-state left panel (layers/properties ↔ live chat), top bar, footer |
Distribution.md |
GA-time plan: signing, installer, EULA, hardening — executed as TASK 36 |
Docs (memory map)
schema.md defines the conventions; ai.md is the AI/session guide;
TASKS.md is the task queue. Each code directory carries an index.md.