Author Topic: Surfulater 50% discount @ www.bitsdujour.com on Mar 4 (Read 18374 times)

patteo · « **on:** February 25, 2009, 08:39 AM »

Surfulater 50% discount on Mar 4.

But I wonder if anyone is still interested nowadays after the recent big price increase.

But if you like it, it's a great deal on Mar 4.

http://www.bitsdujour.com/previews/

mouser · « **Reply #1 on:** February 25, 2009, 09:34 AM »

actually might take a jump at that.. was trying to get us a discount on dc, but this might make that unnesc. i tried surfulater recently and found it quite powerful, and while its still missing a few web export options that are important to me, it might be worth jumping in now and hoping they come soon.

cranioscopical · « **Reply #2 on:** February 25, 2009, 09:35 AM »

Nice discount @ 50%! Thanks for pointing it out.

I like it enough to pay full price and still fail to see why there was a lot of grumbling about the price increase.
It is each vendor's right to price product where he sees fit. Plus we have enjoyed a discount here in the past.

To me the grumbling implies that people would *like* to have the new version but either cannot or will not pay for it.
So, the discount that you've pointed out represents a good opportunity for those who are on a software budget.

Paul Keith · « **Reply #3 on:** February 25, 2009, 10:21 AM »

Darn, thanks for the the link. This does indeed make it more tempting to buy Surfulator.

I've really been on the fence on this one. I love the power Surfulator might have but the traditional trial model just doesn't work IMO.

Unlike any other data gatherer, can anyone tell me what average user would double-clip their clippings so that they have one clipping on a fallback software they regularly use and one on Surfulator just to test how well it works for them? Plus the lack of online syncing...

Then again, the combination of Evernote free + Scrapbook just isn't powerful enough for my needs. Ugh! Brain hurts...

tomos · « **Reply #4 on:** February 25, 2009, 10:44 AM »

... the traditional trial model just doesn't work IMO.
-Paul Keith (February 25, 2009, 10:21 AM)

is it whachamacallit $:-\$ (not the full shilling so to speak) limited in some way ?

can anyone tell me what average user would double-clip their clippings so that they have one clipping on a fallback software they regularly use and one on Surfulator just to test how well it works for them?
-Paul Keith (February 25, 2009, 10:21 AM)

?
I may know the answer but cant figure out the question ..(mind you I dont have the most recent version..)

Paul Keith · « **Reply #5 on:** February 25, 2009, 12:25 PM »

Yes it's limited because unlike say a notepad where you would possibly input some random less important text to it, even if you can export the files out of a web clipper, you don't really think to test it. You just use it and expect it to grow and then a few months later, realize what you like and don't like about it.

That's why with a 30-day model, you're still limited because you still have to have that nagging feeling that your data is insecure within the program and that defeats the true feel of a web clipper which is to clip as much sites as you think you want to keep at random intervals and random moods and then organize it from there.

Basically a 30-day trial model screams "Don't try this unless you're just really looking for a specific feature and have definitely made up your mind that you do indeed want a web clipping program much less this web clipping program you are about to buy because you know this program fills what you've been missing from all the other free web clippers"

sazzen · « **Reply #6 on:** March 04, 2009, 04:22 PM »

I was VERY lucky to have been able to grab this deal. You still have 6 hrs and 43 minutes left - though that isn't always accurate - that's what it said when I just now looked at the site.

On the comments page at Bits there is this post in response to a complaint about the price - which most seem to agree is high:

"We have no plans for further price increases. Also please note that we have increased the number of computers Surfulater can be installed on from 2 to 5 with the Version 3 Release, which we feel is generous and caters for people wanting to use Surfulater on their Home, Work, Notebook PC's etc. Version 3 also includes major new functionality, with more to come through the Version 3 series of releases.

We never said we would not charge for upgrades. In fact our FAQ Web page stated that if and when we did, they would be discounted 50%, so we were always completely up front. Some people however read this differently.

Our upgrade policy now is as follows:
"All updates to the current version number are free, while major upgrades are provided at a 50% discount for existing users." "

SO for now it is available at a great price. Whatever they may do in the future, I will get years of good service from it.

Dormouse · « **Reply #7 on:** March 04, 2009, 06:30 PM »

But if I already have Evernote (2 & 3), OneNote and Ultra Recall, what extra would I gain from Surfulater?
And it does seem expensive.

sazzen · « **Reply #8 on:** March 04, 2009, 07:05 PM »

But if I already have Evernote (2 & 3), OneNote and Ultra Recall, what extra would I gain from Surfulater?
And it does seem expensive.
-Dormouse (March 04, 2009, 06:30 PM)

If you don't hurry up, you will never know.

Carol Haynes · « **Reply #9 on:** March 04, 2009, 07:29 PM »

Our upgrade policy now is as follows:
"All updates to the current version number are free, while major upgrades are provided at a 50% discount for existing users."
-sazzen (March 04, 2009, 04:22 PM)

Strange when I wanted to upgrade from version 2 they said I had pay the full price for version 3 because my purchase was too long ago.

Given that they have only released version 3 how was I supposed to upgrade when there wasn't one available?

cranioscopical · « **Reply #10 on:** March 04, 2009, 10:05 PM »

One speaks as one finds.

I like Surfulater and I've found Neville to be very helpful,
plus he gave DonationCoder a discount.

I feel a bit uncomfortable at the 'bad press' that's being created here.
There may be feelings of outrage at price increases, but it's up to each one of us to decide what a product is worth, and I don't really understand the strength of ill feeling. Let the market do its job and assess the price/value ratio.

My own view is that it would be a pity if readers were dissuaded from trying Surfulater by comments in this thread.
Remarks about price really have no bearing on the performance of Surfulater, which I feel is very good.

No offence intended to anyone.

Dormouse · « **Reply #11 on:** March 05, 2009, 02:05 AM »

There may be feelings of outrage at price increases, but it's up to each one of us to decide what a product is worth, and I don't really understand the strength of ill feeling. Let the market do its job and assess the price/value ratio.

Remarks about price really have no bearing on the performance of Surfulater, which I feel is very good.
-cranioscopical (March 04, 2009, 10:05 PM)

But this whole thread is about price - the 50% discount.

tomos · « **Reply #12 on:** March 05, 2009, 03:23 AM »

I've asked for a clarification in their forum about upgrade pricing
will let you know when I get a response

Carol Haynes · « **Reply #13 on:** March 05, 2009, 05:24 AM »

I feel a bit uncomfortable at the 'bad press' that's being created here.
There may be feelings of outrage at price increases, but it's up to each one of us to decide what a product is worth, and I don't really understand the strength of ill feeling. Let the market do its job and assess the price/value ratio.

My only outrage was being cut out of the upgrade pricing. I can understand some companies arguing that upgrades are only by one version number (so you can't skip version 2 and go from 1 to 3 at the standard upgrade price) - though I feel that is short sighted - but Nev decided that an arbitrary date meant that people who have version 2 can't upgrade to version 3. There are two things that strike me as odd about that:

it alienates the early adopters that helped build the business
it penalises people for that fact it took them a long time to launch the next version

Add to that the huge price hike since it was originally released and it makes me worry what will happen in the future - why buy into an expensive program when there is no certainty that you can upgrade to the next version and that the next version may be more than double the price of what you have paid.

Its all very well to say stick with version 2 if you like - but is there any guarantee that it will be updated as new versions of Windows are released? If not why invest time, effort and money in that product when there are alternatives that don't behave or limit your choices in this way.

OK this thread is about a 50% discount - but it isn't the initial purchase that is the problem - what happens in 18 months time when version 4 is released and only people who bought after the discount get the upgrade price?

Paul Keith · « **Reply #14 on:** March 05, 2009, 06:30 AM »

One speaks as one finds.

I like Surfulater and I've found Neville to be very helpful,
plus he gave DonationCoder a discount.

I feel a bit uncomfortable at the 'bad press' that's being created here.
There may be feelings of outrage at price increases, but it's up to each one of us to decide what a product is worth, and I don't really understand the strength of ill feeling. Let the market do its job and assess the price/value ratio.

My own view is that it would be a pity if readers were dissuaded from trying Surfulater by comments in this thread.
Remarks about price really have no bearing on the performance of Surfulater, which I feel is very good.

No offence intended to anyone.
-cranioscopical (March 04, 2009, 10:05 PM)

The catch-22 here is that since most of us here (even the critical ones) are potentially or former customers of Surfulator, we are part of the market.

Remarks on the price do have a bearing on the performance of Surfulator because it does involve upgrades and hence it is related to what you should expect out of Surfulator. (say if you were to be unsatisfied with some quirks of Surfulator and are looking to wait it out by helping increasing the revenues of the product despite being short on cash in the hopes that in the future, your quirks may be addressed.)

I do get your concern though but I believe that part of why the market works is because they are free to address their concerns without guilt if the offer does not satisfy them. If this were to be removed and we should all feel guilty then the market becomes no more different than an ad. If anything, these posts not only creates a niche for a competitor to address the concerns of the market or motivate Surfulator to try to change things up and if successful, end up not only creating a better offer for critics but make their products more appealing to more potential buyers.

cranioscopical · « **Reply #15 on:** March 05, 2009, 06:51 AM »

I do get your concern though but I believe that part of why the market works is because they are free to address their concerns without guilt if the offer does not satisfy them.
-Paul Keith (March 05, 2009, 06:30 AM)

Sure, but here's a thread about 50% off and there are still complaints.
Look at the second line of the first post!

what happens in 18 months time when version 4 is released and only people who bought after the discount get the upgrade price?
-Carol

Well, it'll be good to see what tomos discovers.
But... I'd guess your scenario would result in one of two things. Either that people who want it would pay for it or there would be a decline in future revenue.

Paul Keith · « **Reply #16 on:** March 05, 2009, 07:15 AM »

True but that's the nature of forums as opposed to anything malicious.

Also on the plus side, if you were to have known about Surfulator and didn't heard the news about the price hike and you read this topic, then the offer becomes more attractive than a normal come-by discount.

At least for me that's how it was and even though I didn't take advantage of the discount, I really really really came close to considering purchasing Surfulator because of that knowledge.

tomos · « **Reply #17 on:** March 10, 2009, 06:40 AM »

I've asked for a clarification in their forum about upgrade pricing
will let you know when I get a response
-tomos (March 05, 2009, 03:23 AM)

well it turns out this whole upgrading thing was a misunderstanding based on the wording in the email sent out to announce Version 3

Hi Tom,
Anyone that has purchased Version 2 can upgrade to Version 3 at 50% off as per the "What is your upgrade policy?" section on our FAQ and Purchase Web pages. If they purchased Version 2 within 90 calendar days of the release of Version 3, then the upgrade is free. I hope that is clear.
-http://www.softasitgets.com/forums/showthread.php?postid=6431#poststop

So from Version 2 you can upgrade to version 3 @ 50% off

EDIT/ if replying probably best to reply in the other Surfulater thread (?) https://www.donation....msg154303#msg154303

kartal · « **Reply #18 on:** March 12, 2009, 12:00 AM »

Is it possible to share Surfulater repo across computers? Is the database structure suitable for synching(via another software) ?

tomos · « **Reply #19 on:** March 12, 2009, 06:00 AM »

Is it possible to share Surfulater repo across computers? Is the database structure suitable for synching(via another software) ?
-kartal (March 12, 2009, 12:00 AM)

1) dont know
2) I've used SFFS to synch file using partial file updating (whatsit called - delta backup?) and worked from/opened that bakup on occasion.

kartal · « **Reply #20 on:** March 12, 2009, 11:10 AM »

What is "SFFS "?

mwb1100 · « **Reply #21 on:** March 12, 2009, 11:25 AM »

Is it possible to share Surfulater repo across computers? Is the database structure suitable for synching(via another software) ?
-kartal (March 12, 2009, 12:00 AM)

A Surfulater database consists of 2 files; I think that they are both XML files (I know at least one of them is - I'm not at home right now to actually look). So a sync where file(s) are modifed only on one side or the other is quite easy - any sync software can handle it. However a sync where both sides have updated the file is not something that can be easily handled - there's no way for an application that doesn't know about Surfulater databases to know how to handle the conflict. Since they are XML files, you might get lucky with a simply text-based merge, but I wouldn't think this would be reliable.

KB syncronization has been on nevf's todo list for quite a while, and it's the one that I've been most anxiously waiting for, but it's a tough nut to crack and I think that he's been concentrating on things his other customers want more.

I'm hoping it'll get into the 3.x version at some point, but I really have no idea how soon it'll be along.

As far as sharing a read-only copy of the KB, there are a couple options:

1. just copy the files where they are accessible from whoever you want to have read access - an unregistered Surfulater acts a free reader application
2. Surfulater can publish a KB as a website

tomos · « **Reply #22 on:** March 12, 2009, 12:20 PM »

What is "SFFS "?
-kartal (March 12, 2009, 11:10 AM)

Super Flexible File Synchronizer
sorry it's been discussed here so much (in the past) it tends to get shortened