DonationCoder.com Software > Find And Run Robot
not freeware !!!
mouser:
To me, the key part of donationware is that whether or not a user chooses to donate, and regardless of the amount, they should have full access to the full program, without imposing any *non-trivial* work or annoyances.
The *non-trivial* part is where things get a bit subjective and fuzzy -- but at least speaking for myself, that's the standard i use, and i do consider what we ask of users who choose not to donate to be trivial. For this reason i also consider the software to fall under the heading of free software.
edyshor:
Donationaware as far as I'm concerned (a learned definition from software that I've encountered over the years) is software that is free. But in the about box, readme or some website (or someplace else that an interested user might read) it states a call for the user's good will to donate some money if they appreciate the software, in other words donations are not imposed (a donation by definition is a contribution: a voluntary gift (as of money or service or ideas) made to some worthwhile cause - http://wordnet.princeton.edu/perl/webwn ) The user should not be imposed to donate, its ok to inform him, it's ok to convince him in a informative way, but not by promise of alleviating an annoyance or otherwise more or less tedious task. (the special offers and discounts should be enough) and I'm ok to show him the article mouser wrote and prevent direct linking to downloadable content. But this should be more then enough. The need to register and the nag screen differentiate mouser's software from traditional freeware and donationware. It's free software but is not freeware. It's not exactly donationware either, because the user is alleviated by the annoyance of periodically register and seeing the nag screen when it starts the program.
Anyway, we're arguing here about the ethical use of freeware/donationware concepts, and the "ethical" concept itself is a relative term anyway.
The software is great, i don't say that it ain't worth some bucks or anything, so don't jump on me about that :)
mouser:
edyshor, I think you make some reasonable points. I also appreciate that you've come up with definitions that are useful (i think you made a good case about why you think it qualifies as "free software" and not "freeware"). Things become a little messy in the real world because most people don't have such a nuanced view of these word meanings. I do think we should probably make a more determined effort to use the term free software whenever possible, and avoid using the term "freeware" except when forced to choose between labeling our software freeware vs. shareware. I'd also agree that Donationware is not the ideal term -- the problem is that there is no existing term that perfectly captures what we do, and we have enough trouble explaining the site to not want to add to it by calling our software "PayWhatYouWantIncludingNothingButYouHaveToSignUpAtForumUnlessYouDontMindAnOccassionalReminderOrWriteToUs_WARE"
f0dder:
"PayWhatYouWantIncludingNothingButYouHaveToSignUpAtForumUnlessYouDontMindAnOccassionalReminderOrWriteToUs_WARE" :-*
Wordzilla:
"PayWhatYouWantIncludingNothingButYouHaveToSignUpAtForumUnlessYouDontMindAnOccassionalReminderOrWriteToUs_WARE" :-*
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-f0dder (March 21, 2007, 07:25 AM)
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;D ;D ;D ;D ;D
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