I suspect this is the case. I know you canāt force volunteers to āwasteā their time writing one sentence to document their change. I know some people take no pride in their work.
I guess what surprises me is the number of people here who spring to defend this practice.
Thereās almost no chance this will be done because all that would change is:
Bumped abc to 1.2.3.
would change to
Bumped abc to 1.2.3 for minor enhancements and bug fixes.
The only time notable changes are mentioned are when things drastically change. Otherwise itās always safe to assume that bumped software contains minor bug fixes and enhancements.
Nevermind the fact that it takes upwards of 8 days to create the current release notes with 1 main author and ~100 editors.
It always amuses me that the people who want these types of changes are missing from both the beta and release note creation process. Youāre welcome to join and assist with things like this. Itās by far the easiest way to contribute to HA.
No, because itās pretty standard practice. OWM could impose a hard limit and require no CC, or make it more flexible as they have (arguing service continuity might be more important for some). Google and many other vendors do exactly the same. If you use the Google Travel HA integration youād see itās the same story. 1000 free calls is pretty liberal. People complaining about how a company conduct their business when they get a free service seems somewhat inappropriate.
Well, having to provide a credit card for a FREE service that you fully intend to set a usage limit for, seems somewhat inappropriate (to me). Especially given how often companies get hacked and credit cards get stolen.
Nobodyās forcing you to use them. They can conduct their business any way they like and you can choose who to use.
Can you use https://privacy.com/ and just set a one vendor card and the limit to low amount? Iāve not done that, but it seems like it would work, and would mitigate exposure of stolen info.
My question was if anybody else thought requiring a credit card number for a service that WAS (and still IS) free, suspicious. You clearly donāt and that is OK. Whatās not OK is you chastising me for pointing it out. Iāve been around the block, probably more times than you. I know how things work. And why. I donāt have to like it.
And to your point, no, I donāt use it any longer, not that neither you nor OWM will care. Itās just another service I no longer use in HA, one in a growing list.
Youāre good at āfixingā other peopleās comments, Iāve noticed.
That little image is helpful and all, but doesnāt that appear only AFTER youāve subscribed? 
Odd they donāt mention how easy it is to cancel before requiring your CC #. Probably just an oversight. 
And I pointed out to you that there are different ways to look at it. Making a rational decision by them āsuspectā goes towards conspiracy theory territory. Itās a plain and simple business decision by them ā and a fair one in my view ā yet you push a certain agenda. Gathering the horde and ganging up isnāt going to lead anywhere.
Why are you making this personal? Iāve mentioned both viewpoints in my replies. All Iām saying is that I understand their decision. Thereās nothing suspect about it.
I rest my case.
Try using the Google AI. I donāt think you need to enter a credit card with them to use use the free tier, at least I donāt remember doing so myself.
When youāre trying to start rumors or make implications, I will curb them. Thereās really no reason to see a conspiracy in every move that occurs in HA.
I couldnāt agree with you more. I can honestly say that Iāve used very little of the great new stuff added to HA over the last two years to improve beyond my initial setup in 2020-2021. Iāve seen little need for any of it personally, and I automate pretty much everything in my home. In fact, Iāve actually lost some capabilities I previously enjoyed, and stopped beta testing long ago when it seemed concerns were being ignored. With over a hundred devices, thousands of entities, and scores of automations, itās been rock solid. I donāt need another voice assistant or AI to assist. I have Siri and Home integrated already. And so many of the integrations are for utilities and other systems we donāt have in the US. And thatās fine if you have it and use it. But I continue to worry about bloat and instability. Makes me wonder why I continue to subscribe to Nabu Casa and sponsor HA developers. But thatās just me spreading vicious rumors and seeing conspiracies everywhere, right @petro. (Cue SA moderator response) 
Looking back at my OP and then at what you just said, I donāt think itās me whoās wearing the tin hat.
I think you may be taking this whole moderation thing a bit too seriously. But do go on, ācurbā away.
Iāll be sure to never dare question the intentions of our glorious leaders again. Scoutās honor.
Calm down, I was just responding to your post directed at me. Thatās what happens when you reply to someone, they reply back. No reason to be so sensitive
Ugh. I was calm before someone couldnāt resist accusing me of spreading rumors and imagining conspiracies. You might consider a bit more restraint before approaching your keyboard next time and all this could have been avoided.
All I said was āfixed it for yaā, which sent you down this tirade. No moderation has been done , but for some reason you think there has been.
To be honest I am not sure how talking about another company requiring a credit card and how itās a poor practice is relevant to this thread. If you find it weird they are implementing this practice, thereās not much we can do about that - itās pretty common to require a credit card for even a free trial before you can cancel things. Not saying itās good, but itās nothing new. If you are worried about your account getting āhackedā (which these days is largely due to log in information being leaked in data breaches, not because someone hacked into your computer), I suggest using a good password manager with a generator and 2FA set up for all of your accounts.
Itās your decision to not use the features put in, which aligns with our value of choice. If you donāt think something is for you, totally fine! Not everything is for everyone! But there are some people who choose to use the new features we implement and thatās pretty cool. If you notice any issues with stability, please be sure to report that stuff so the engineers can work on getting it resolved.
But trying to get a conversation started about how itās shady practice to ask for a CC for a free API not provided by HA or Nabu Casa isnāt on topic anywhere on this forum, and I will ask politely that itās dropped.
Itās relevant precisely because this thread is about this particular release, in which this integration now requires a CC# for exactly the same service it provided before this release. My question was simply why.
Yet, Iāve been accused here of spreading rumors and conspiracy theories by a Moderator, chastised and demeaned by someone else who thinks my even bringing it up is āinappropriateā, and now piled on by an administrator (whose salary Iām currently contributing to) who politely asks me to stfu.
Message received.
And just for your information since you donāt know me, Iāve had more CCs stolen due to hacks by internet business who canāt protect it than I can count. Iāve also had pretty much everything else lost in a US Govt DoD breach years ago due to holding a security clearance. So, yeah, Iām a little suspicious about handing it over when it is not needed. I donāt care what anybody says, thatās just bad business, common or not (read the PCI Security Standards).
And I already do use a good PW manager and 2FA whenever itās available. Cheers.
Iāll stfu now.
This is not dogpiling, I am stepping in because you donāt seem to respect the moderators here. Dogpiling would be if you had a dozen other people hop into the thread replying to you.
I understand how petro set you off. He didnāt edit anything you actually posted, he did a popular meme in which he āfixed that for youā in his own reply to show thatās it was not a choice of the HA development team to require this but the person who owns the integration. He also showed how to unsubscribe, and it appears that you do need to add everything first. You asked people if it was suspicious they did that and how to unsubscribe. You were told no one cared about the credit card stuff and how to unsubscribe.
Could petro have stepped back a little? Yes. Did you stop talking about the credit card requirement being suspicious? No. You continued to press that and others noted itās a little āconspiracy theoryā - petro wasnāt even the first one to say it.
Now, allow me to do the job that I am indeed paid to do - manage the community. Drop the topic here, raise your concerns about their credit card practices to OWM, and carry on. Any other post on this and there will be an official warning.
For what itās worth to anyone interested, I went to check and OpenWeather uses Stripe (as does Nabu Casa).