DonationCoder.com Software > Mouser's Zone

Ideas i want to bounce off you guys

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rjbull:
the moment we have a nag that cannot be removed until you dontate, or limit features, then the program ceases to be freeware.
-mouser (November 15, 2005, 04:53 AM)
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As a personal comment: I think the problem with donationware is knowing how much to give. If I give a couple of dallars I feel rather stingy, but if I start giving $15-20 I start thinking 'do I really need this program?' and as a newcomer to the site I also wondered 'is there a cheap commercial version' or a 'free' version with no expectation of a donation? Don't misunderstand I think donationwar is a great idea but it takes some adjustment in the mindset.
-CarolHaynes (November 15, 2005, 05:34 AM)
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A big difference here is that a single donation of any amount covers not just one, but several programs, AND from time to time gets you discounts on shareware.  If any of the software included is even modestly appealing, $20 or even more starts to look like a good deal.

Carol Haynes:
A big difference here is that a single donation of any amount covers not just one, but several programs, AND from time to time gets you discounts on shareware.  If any of the software included is even modestly appealing, $20 or even more starts to look like a good deal.
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I agree absolutely - but I was thinking back to the first time I visited the site (based on Fred Langa recommending Fin&Run).

The trouble with the internet is that you become suspicious of practically every site you visit - and most people's motivation.

Glad to say DC is a site the restores a bit of faith in the www 'community' - and individual motivations.

superboyac:
Well, either way works as far as I'm concerned.  Chonging the timeframe from 6 months to 30 days would help a little, but I'd be surprised if it made that much difference (but I'm just assuming).  How does the donation aspect work anyway?  What if someone donates 5 cents?  Does he get a universal key after that?  If that's true, you'll find a bunch of people just donating a penny or a nickel.  You can't do anything about that, these people will always be around, and it's kind of in a ll of us...it's human nature.

However you want to do it is fine.  I just don't see one method of freeware/donationware making much difference over another method because the bottom remains that it's still free.  I think there is great motivation as it is because you offer shareware programs as prizes and stuff to members and the discounts.  That's more motivation than changing the license key method.

brotherS:
I just don't see one method of freeware/donationware making much difference over another method because the bottom remains that it's still free.  I think there is great motivation as it is because you offer shareware programs as prizes and stuff to members and the discounts.  That's more motivation than changing the license key method.
-superboyac (January 02, 2006, 01:52 PM)
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Donationware seems to promote a better coder <-> user relation. Hadn't Screenshot Captor (the first DC program I used) been donationware I probably would have posted a few bug reports or would have mailed them to mouser, but I'm not 100% sure DC would have had the same impact on me as it did have - and vice versa.
:)

mouser:
How does the donation aspect work anyway?  What if someone donates 5 cents?  Does he get a universal key after that?
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yep.  in fact the way it works is that the minimum you can donate via paypal is 25 cents.
of which paypal takes as its percentage.... wait for it.... that's right, 25 cents.

so users can actually donate 0 and get a full lifetime charter membership if that is what they are determined to do.

If that's true, you'll find a bunch of people just donating a penny or a nickel.
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i have written a lot on this forum about the philosophy and theory that this site was started with - it was my belief that the chief obstacle to people donating was not that they weren't willing to make a financial contribution, but rather that they just didn't follow through with an initial impulse to donate because it was too much effort.  and that if you could convince them to go through the steps of donating, most would donate more than the minimum.

that was a theory 9 months ago.  i don't know if there have been published studies of this issue in the past, but after 9 months i can tell you that the question has been clearly answered: almost no one donates the minimum.  probably less than 1% of donators have donated $1 or less.  quite a few donate $5, and quite a few donate more than $25.  some have donated very generously.

it is a testament to people's good will that they have been willing to donate more than the minimum they had to, and this is an extremely significant result - it suggests that as donating becomes easier and more secure, it becomes a more and more viable approach to ethically funding projects.

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