Recent Posts33326
Living Room / Re: Simply to much nagging here
« Last post by mouser on January 26, 2006, 02:43 AM »ruhmkorff,
what i can tell you is your not the only one who feels this way.. and i do thank you for taking the time to post about your impression. if you read some more on the forum youll find we've struggled very hard to figure out a way to make this site work while keeping the software free for those who can't afford to pay, and make sure everyone can donate exactly how much they think its worth, including 0. i hope you have time to browse around the forum and the site and read some of the much longer discussions we've had about this and related issues.
the bottom line is that there doesn't seem to be a perfect solution but we are trying to find a reasonable balance that let's us stick with our principals.
regarding collecting personal information, what i can say is this:
we have never and will never share any personal information, email addresses, etc. with anyone. we won't sell it, trade it, or use it to send advertisements. period. ever. we do send out a newsletter about the site once or twice a month which you can remove yourself from easily by checking a box in the profile options - after that you'll never hear from us again.
it was a real debate whether to require registration on the forum and i know some people object to it, but it has made a real difference in terms of helping encourage people to participate here, and it does help us keep in touch with those who dont mind an update from us every once and a while. we operate entirely on donations and i hope it's not too much to remind people that we survive on their voluntary donations once a month or so, given that it's so easy to opt out of the newsletter.
having said that, we are still very much debating whether or not to scrap all of this and just make the software usable without any signup or license key, etc. i think we may do another trial period of it and see the result. please keep in mind that we pay a fairly hefty server fee now, and we absolutely MUST face reality that 99% of people are never ever going to donate. that leaves us trying to reach the remaining 1% which would consider donating. that's fine. our aim is to find a reasonable way to reach that last 1%.
one real dilemna is that some people from that 1% are probably like you, they might donate out of good will and don't require any incentive at all. then there is (what we believe is) a much larger group that just need a little bit of motivation to donate - thus the license key approach we have followed. i hope you see our dilemna - how to stick with our priniciples but not end up having to stop this whole project because we can't raise enough money to pay server fees each month.
it's really that simple - there are no hidden agendas on this site, and no plans on collecting user data. as it says all over this site, we're trying to find a way to build a community where programmers can get a little bit of money for their work and keep their software available for everyone. not get rich, but be part of something fun and satisfying.
anyway, i've said all this in different ways in the past, can't tell if i'm getting better at explaining it or not.
one last thing that we've tried to make clear. anyone who objects to the policies of the site need only email me and explain their thoughts and we're happy to send them a non-expiring license, etc. our goal is not to punish those who won't donate, only to nudge those who might be willing to, to go through the little bit of work required to do so.
i do want to repeat though, that it does help hearing from people who won't donate because of the approach we've taken, because it's useful information to have when it comes time to think about how to best balance things. this site is an experiment and we will keep trying things until we find the best balance.
-mouser
what i can tell you is your not the only one who feels this way.. and i do thank you for taking the time to post about your impression. if you read some more on the forum youll find we've struggled very hard to figure out a way to make this site work while keeping the software free for those who can't afford to pay, and make sure everyone can donate exactly how much they think its worth, including 0. i hope you have time to browse around the forum and the site and read some of the much longer discussions we've had about this and related issues.
the bottom line is that there doesn't seem to be a perfect solution but we are trying to find a reasonable balance that let's us stick with our principals.
regarding collecting personal information, what i can say is this:
we have never and will never share any personal information, email addresses, etc. with anyone. we won't sell it, trade it, or use it to send advertisements. period. ever. we do send out a newsletter about the site once or twice a month which you can remove yourself from easily by checking a box in the profile options - after that you'll never hear from us again.
it was a real debate whether to require registration on the forum and i know some people object to it, but it has made a real difference in terms of helping encourage people to participate here, and it does help us keep in touch with those who dont mind an update from us every once and a while. we operate entirely on donations and i hope it's not too much to remind people that we survive on their voluntary donations once a month or so, given that it's so easy to opt out of the newsletter.
having said that, we are still very much debating whether or not to scrap all of this and just make the software usable without any signup or license key, etc. i think we may do another trial period of it and see the result. please keep in mind that we pay a fairly hefty server fee now, and we absolutely MUST face reality that 99% of people are never ever going to donate. that leaves us trying to reach the remaining 1% which would consider donating. that's fine. our aim is to find a reasonable way to reach that last 1%.
one real dilemna is that some people from that 1% are probably like you, they might donate out of good will and don't require any incentive at all. then there is (what we believe is) a much larger group that just need a little bit of motivation to donate - thus the license key approach we have followed. i hope you see our dilemna - how to stick with our priniciples but not end up having to stop this whole project because we can't raise enough money to pay server fees each month.
it's really that simple - there are no hidden agendas on this site, and no plans on collecting user data. as it says all over this site, we're trying to find a way to build a community where programmers can get a little bit of money for their work and keep their software available for everyone. not get rich, but be part of something fun and satisfying.
anyway, i've said all this in different ways in the past, can't tell if i'm getting better at explaining it or not.
one last thing that we've tried to make clear. anyone who objects to the policies of the site need only email me and explain their thoughts and we're happy to send them a non-expiring license, etc. our goal is not to punish those who won't donate, only to nudge those who might be willing to, to go through the little bit of work required to do so.
i do want to repeat though, that it does help hearing from people who won't donate because of the approach we've taken, because it's useful information to have when it comes time to think about how to best balance things. this site is an experiment and we will keep trying things until we find the best balance.
-mouser
