The free users I love and the free users I resent.

I've got two kinds of free users, and I've only recently started admitting they're not the same.

One kind writes me thoughtful feedback, tells their friends, answers my questions honestly, and eventually converts — sometimes after a year, sometimes never, but they leave the product better than they found it. They're a gift.

The other kind opens fifty support tickets about things that are clearly in the docs, demands features they'll never pay for, and gets angry when I don't respond within an hour. They cost me hours and give back nothing.

And I've been treating them identically because treating them differently feels unfair. But is it actually unfair? Or is it just honest?

How do you tell the two apart early — and do you ever just... stop replying to the second kind?