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Older Newsletters / Re: DonationCoder.com Article - One Year Report on our Experiments with Donationware
« on: January 14, 2009, 04:29 AM »
Now a second post regarding my personal experiences on this website. I got here because I was searching for a Freeware Capture program. I read the 'rules' regarding registration and... like other people have said: it is too dawn confusing. Different registration options... if you don't agree you can click to another page and there is another option... temporary license...
This lead to me trying another freeware program first FSCapture and it suits my needs very well. One major point is that I want to capture window screenshots with rounded corners. FSCapture does it perfectly (adding white in the corners) and when browsing throuigh this forum I found out your Capture program might not be capable of rounded corners (one topic states someone couldn't get it to work, Mousers reply was maybe the feature was removed accidentally). No reason for me to look further it seems.
But because I find the DOnationware principe and the communicty interesting, I did sign up for this forum with the intention of complimenting the article and give feedback in this particular topic. Unfortunately, gettin on the forum took me multiple registraion attempts, because I did not receive a validation email (only after 30+ min). But here I am, haning in there just to give my feedback!
My opinion is this: everyubody knows people do not want to register for simple small programs. So for thos things, do not ask for registration in the first 6 months. When I am using the program regularly and I see a donation request after 6 months, I will definitelty donate. This are different when it concerns bigger, more expensive or more specific software.
I develop software between 80 and 880 euro per license (Much2Do is the only exception) and for those I really want people to give me their email address before downloading. This is for two reasons (may not be very valid but still): 1. I want to be able to ask them for feedback a few weeks later, 2. I 'd like to think - I know it's not true - I can keep track of who is using the software in case someone 'hacks' my software.
Writing this, I know I can NEVER be sure my software will not be hacked/cracked. But if it would be possible - theoretically - to develop 'unhackable' software I would be happy to return to my former download method: people could decide themselves whether they give me an email address or not. This is not a big step back because frankly: people can leave me a temp hotmail address now (although very few do)
This lead to me trying another freeware program first FSCapture and it suits my needs very well. One major point is that I want to capture window screenshots with rounded corners. FSCapture does it perfectly (adding white in the corners) and when browsing throuigh this forum I found out your Capture program might not be capable of rounded corners (one topic states someone couldn't get it to work, Mousers reply was maybe the feature was removed accidentally). No reason for me to look further it seems.
But because I find the DOnationware principe and the communicty interesting, I did sign up for this forum with the intention of complimenting the article and give feedback in this particular topic. Unfortunately, gettin on the forum took me multiple registraion attempts, because I did not receive a validation email (only after 30+ min). But here I am, haning in there just to give my feedback!
My opinion is this: everyubody knows people do not want to register for simple small programs. So for thos things, do not ask for registration in the first 6 months. When I am using the program regularly and I see a donation request after 6 months, I will definitelty donate. This are different when it concerns bigger, more expensive or more specific software.
I develop software between 80 and 880 euro per license (Much2Do is the only exception) and for those I really want people to give me their email address before downloading. This is for two reasons (may not be very valid but still): 1. I want to be able to ask them for feedback a few weeks later, 2. I 'd like to think - I know it's not true - I can keep track of who is using the software in case someone 'hacks' my software.
Writing this, I know I can NEVER be sure my software will not be hacked/cracked. But if it would be possible - theoretically - to develop 'unhackable' software I would be happy to return to my former download method: people could decide themselves whether they give me an email address or not. This is not a big step back because frankly: people can leave me a temp hotmail address now (although very few do)