We're looking for some feedback from those of you who have purchased digital patterns.
As you know, most people are good and honest. But every so often there's a bad apple. Processes need to be designed to be easy to use for the good people but to limit the potential damage that can be done by bad people.
What we currently do on digital patterns is keep the download link alive for seven days. That way people have ample time to download and save their patterns after purchase, but it limits the damage that can be done if someone who is dishonest, for example, would post the download link in an online discussion forum with a heading, "Hey friends, get your free pattern here!" (And yes, this sort of thing happens....)
The issue is that almost daily we get emails from people who purchased digital patterns months or even a year or more ago who have lost them. The file got deleted, a hard drive crashed, etc. They still have the email with the download link, but the link has expired. Servicing these requests is taking more and more time.
What would you think if we changed how the site worked and instead of having the download link expire after seven days, having it expire after three download attempts? That would allow someone who lost a pattern to download it again in the future, and it would protect against posting and rampant sharing of download links.
The downside of this is that I'm not sure it would reduce the number of help requests we get. I think people may download but not save a file immediately. They'll download and look at it once. Download it a second time to check fabric requirements. Download it to print it. Etc.
For those of you who use digital patterns frequently, what would be the easiest and most convenient approach to this issue for you--limited time to download a file or a limited number of download attempts?