Is DonationCoder too exposed of a brand?

[zridling]

What brought me here was mouser's mega review of text editors. I thought, here's a guy who really loves software. I must have read that thing ten times.

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Back to an earlier line of thought, and this observation: one reason some may feel stagnation is the very state of software itself. Desktop software -- including operating systems -- are at an all-time high for maturity, stability, power, and choice. Whatever my text editor doesn't presently do, I can write a script to do within it. There's little room to argue improvement in something like Microsoft Office, for, what does it not do at this point! Same for Windows and for me, Linux. We know the Apple folks are hooked and we also know they have no influence on what Steve Jobs will do next. And I haven't even gotten to cloud software, which morphed into "apps" but are packaged and sold as "services" -- the browser is the focus for today's mass of users.

[superboyac]

What brought me here was mouser's mega review of text editors. I thought, here's a guy who really loves software. I must have read that thing ten times.

_________________
Back to an earlier line of thought, and this observation: one reason some may feel stagnation is the very state of software itself. Desktop software -- including operating systems -- are at an all-time high for maturity, stability, power, and choice. Whatever my text editor doesn't presently do, I can write a script to do within it. There's little room to argue improvement in something like Microsoft Office, for, what does it not do at this point! Same for Windows and for me, Linux. We know the Apple folks are hooked and we also know they have no influence on what Steve Jobs will do next. And I haven't even gotten to cloud software, which morphed into "apps" but are packaged and sold as "services" -- the browser is the focus for today's mass of users.

-zridling (February 25, 2011, 12:22 PM)

Yes, yes.  All moneymakers want to eventually end up where the financial industry is.  Where, instead of selling products (which is a lot of labor and difficult) you charge for services.  Services are always cash cows.  Because you lock people into long term contracts.  it's difficult to get out, but easy to get in.  And...the best part...you charge a percentage rather than a set price.  So the bigger the scope, the larger the pay, EVEN IF the amount of labor is exactly the same.  Real Estate is the same.  This is where all the big money makers are.  This is what separates the rich from the other people.

[Paul Keith]

I find it really hard to compose replies to these posts that pack in 10 different conflicting barely-related ideas..

Paul please take this as constructive criticism -- you find some great stuff and have some cool ideas but it can be so hard to digest this stuff and respond intelligently when it feels like i'm reading a murder mystery with these posts sometimes.. with 10 different ideas, a mystery title, and 5 different links.  And it makes it that much more likely that any discussion to follow is going to go off in 10 directions at once (or else just cause people to give up trying to form a coherent response).  I'd give anything to have you refine these posts a bit and just really try to make one point at clearly as possible in each topic..

Believe me mouser, I'm trying. IMO the reason I bolded this:

Probably only 5% represent donationware on their sleeves

Was for those looking at that one single point but even bolded sentences can't seem to convey that.

One of the things it seemed like you were suggesting is that perhaps we should be more in the vangard about actually advocating for the concept of donationware and championing that cause more clearly in everything we do.

It's the opposite actually. I feel DC is already a vanguard. Among all donationware sites, it's the only one that still hosts regular events, though there aren't a lot of posters compared to larger forums - it's still one of the few places where blogs like ghacks will post a program shared here.

Yet it doesn't translate that way to search sites. Just go ahead and "dasboard" donationcoder and donationware in Netvibes: http://www.netvibes.com/en

The results are day and night. DonationCoder donationware is treated in a different light from donationware across the net. It's one thing if it's just Wikipedia since they have a notability issue but for people to not even know the top donationware communities - it brings into question the brand "DonationCoder", not just in terms of SEO but as a whole in uniting donationware aware users. (not just in dictionary terms but in philosophical terms)

Paul, do me a favor and summarize your original post.

I already did it in my original post. (See title, see bolded sentence or even just the clue to type donationcoder and donationware in both Netvibes.com and YourVersion.com)

Maybe I'm just not cut out for writing. It's the same with my blog. I've have someone here whom I respect dearly gave me one of the most detailed advises to improve my blog but I just couldn't pull it through. mouser have given me tons of clues on what to improve but regardless of the different format I've tried when making topics, it rarely works.

Donationcoder.com is vaguely branded and amorphous

Um no... the mention of changing DonationCoder didn't originate from me.

I just put it there to reference how things are changing in DonationCoder but we may not even consider the fact that Donationcoder and Donationware are both clearly branded but vaguely connected as far as search engine perception goes.

3. Donationware is an unprofitable and unsustainable model. Instead, let's charge $1/download, standardized by mobile apps.
4. Devs get little or poor feedback from donationware. Better to charge a set fee and this will change.

These are all good points that the articles are trying to question but as far as the context of my pasting them - again, this was just to emphasize how many just perceive donationware to be freeware with donations. They are missing a huge chunk of the community and concepts and philosophies that has been developed here in DC in the form of DonationCoder software.