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TalkAboutShareware thread

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rrtwister:
I just went and read the entire thread and can only say that there are some really anal retentive people that just do not get the philosophy behind the DonationCoder concept. I am just an end user, so I cannot speak for how it feels to have people try justify using my hard earned work for free and complain about coming back to a site once every 6 months. One thing I do know for certain is that I found DonationCoder in the middle of September of this year and instantly knew that donating was the right thing to do. I have since made more small donations as I could afford (I have been out of work since Febuary of this year). Not trying to toot my own horn, but just telling it as it is. I believe in supporting people that are trying to do the right thing. Mouser has made me feel more than welcome in the DonationCoder community and that I really do appreciate. There are many people that are always there to help and give advice, Carol, brotherS and skrommel just to name a few. Even though alot of the forum goes over my head technically, I have never found any attitude when I ask for a simple explanation of something. This is truly a community where one is made to feel like they are an important part from day one.

mouser:
again, i can't tell you how much those nice words mean to me.  this has been the real reward of this site, finding you people.

i think there is something to be gained by engaging people, even those who disagree, and i think their points are worth taking seriously.

in fact, it has given me some ideas, and i've posted one of them to that thread now which i intend to implement this weekend, you can read about it here:
http://groups.google.com/group/alt.comp.freeware/browse_frm/thread/7e3e5755136b0a54?scoring=d&

basically what i suggested was this:

here's another thought -
people are (perhaps rightly) focusing on the 6 months renewal thing.
the main point of that was like most of our approach, to try to get
people to really *think* about donating; we hope that by getting them
back to the site after 6 months of use they will realize "hey i really
use this program, and the site has just gotten better in those 6 months
since i decided not to donate, maybe now i will".

but as i've said w.r.t. people being able to email me to request a
non-expiring license if they are sure they don't want to donate, maybe
we could allay some concerns if we simply said this:

Your initial freeware license key generated will turn into a "startup
nag/reminder" (and not expire the program) after 6 months.
At that point you can return to our site and generate a *permanent
non-expiring license key* for the program.

That would 1) make it so the programs never stop working.
and 2) make it so you only ever have to come back once for a renewal
key, after that it turns into full normal pure non-expiring non-nagging
freeware.

Alternatively if we were worried that that would make it just too
tempting to hit the "make me a non-expiring license key" button and
quickly never look back, we could ask that they renew twice before it
turned into a full non-expiring license key, i.e. after 6 months you
download another 6 month key, and after that you are given permanent
non-expiring license key; that's a no brainer for me and i see no
reason not to add that right away; later we can decide maybe we should
just give a permanent key at the time of first renewal.
--- End quote ---



So i'm going to make those changes this weekend; i think it addresses the more serious and important concerns expressed by the people in that thread and is consistent with the philosophy of the site.  it does add a bit more to explain, but that's par for the course here :)

rjbull:
I'm truly sorry I started this, though I suppose someone had to draw attention to the alt.comp.freeware thread.

Was reading "Survivor" last night, an SF story by Charles Stross.  Found this apposite:

They're pigs in cyberspace, wallowing happily in the mudbath of their own limited cognitive bandwidth.

--- End quote ---

mouser:
rj,
 you did great by posting this - it gave me a chance to explain to anyone who was reading that what we are trying to do.
 and it led to an improved license key policy (imho),
 and it led to some nice new donating members who read the posts and wanted to support the site.
 and it helped those who liked F+R learn how to get the license they wanted.

so overall it worked out great :)

nudone:
agreed, it looks like a positive outcome to me.

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