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DonationCoder.com Article - One Year Report on our Experiments with Donationware

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mouser:
I'm very sympathetic to what you are saying -- I know when i want to try a new program i do NOT want to be bothered by things like signing up, etc.  I run away if i find something like that.

However there is something that i think may confuse people:

The DC programs that take license keys do NOT require you to sign up or even download a free license key to use the program for a while!

I think there may be a confusion: When a program like Screenshot Captor starts for the very first time after installation it shows an about box welcoming use to program and suggesting they consider donating.

It will not show that "nag" again until the free period ends in 10 days or so.  For those 10 days the user will not be nagged or have any features limited.  I think people may see that dialog and think -- oh im going to be nagged every time from now on -- it's not the case.

After the 10 days you will see a pop up reminding you to come get a free license key (though the program will keep working indefinitely).

At that point you could continue using the program and ignore the startup nag.  OR you could visit the free license key page -- and if you still hate signing up, you can always generate a quick 30 day free license key right online from the license key page without ever signing up if you really object to signing up.

Signing up at the forum is what lets you download a 6 month free license key, and also puts you on track for a permanent non-expiring license key after 12 month.

--

I know it's more complicated than it should be.. I'm open to improving it.  The problem, as we've discussed before, is that we have to walk a fine line and find a good balance that encourages people to donate without being overbearing and while keeping the software free for those who cant pay.  Inevitably we end up "punishing" some good people who would have donated anyway without all the rigmarole, which sucks.

czb:
To be honest I do not understand the idea of forcing people to sign up at all. There are so many people who do NOT speak and understand English. They would normaly download it from some local download server and use it, but now they are forced to sign up in English.

Maybe better would be to put there notice that this forum exists and how to sign up but definitely not to FORCE them...

For example, I think that serial number policy discriminates FARR against Launchy and other alternatives, which is pitty

EDIT: this also holds for donations

mouser:
I think your points are good czb -- and especially coming from a coder on the site i think should be given great weight.

I should say that I/we agonized over it quite a bit initially. And i think you are right that for non-english speakers, even though we have translation buttons on every page of the website, it has to be more even more confusing and frustration.

On the other hand these negatives have to be balanced against some facts:

* most people download our software from external software sites, and if there is no reason to come to our website they never will.
* it seems we are living in a strange age where most people are perfectly happy to pay for software labeled as "commercial" but would never consider donating for something they don't have to.  this presents a huge dilemna for us because we are fighting an uphill battle trying to get people to even consider the remote possibility of donating to our site.
* encouraging people to sign up at the forum allows us to give away the non-expiring lifetime keys because we know someone has been a member for a year and if they haven't donated by then they probably never will, but at least they would have considered it, which is the important thing as far as i'm concerned.
* although requiring people to sign up no doubt frustrates some people, it's hard to argue that it doesn't also have the benefit of bringing new active participants into the forum who actually add a lot to the discussion.  having to sign up at a forum is probably what stops most people from ever participating in a forum -- because this provides another reason to sign up, i think it means that significantly more people sign up and then afterwards end up participating than would otherwise.
* having people sign up at the forum give us the opportunity to ask them if they will subscribe to our twice-monthly newsletter.  the newsletter is very important to the site -- it gives us an opportunity to keep in touch with people who might otherwise forget about the site; instead they discover that the site is a real, active site that offers continued value, and is something worth supporting.

czb:
so you want to
1) force people to attend this forum
2) force people to think about donating

1) you could just add a checked option in installation wizzard to open donationcoder forum and if user likes the forum he will sign up for sure. You can also ask for an email in installation wizzard and send newsletter directly without signing up

2) again you can incorporate this idea into what I have writen in 1). That means put into installation wizzard donate button, talk about donations in the newsletter...

So the result would be:
A) No serial numbers
B) No signing up required

if you go around the net you can find a lot of discussions why people hate to sign up (for example when buying online etc). This is fact and we should obbey it. There are so many other ways how to let people know about forum and donating then FORCING them  :Thmbsup:

f0dder:
Not sure that's a good idea, czechboy.

I personally get pretty suspicious when something asks me for an email address, and for unknown software I'll definitely be entering a bogus address unless I absolutely HAVE to enter a valid one. Now, of course I know that DonationCoder software has no bad intentions, but if I was a new user that didn't know about the site yet and just wanted to try FARR or Screenshot Captor? I would enter bogus information.

Also, I think there shouldn't be too much about donating in the newsletter, as it could easily be seen as begging. Iirc we've seen one or two posts from people who couldn't remember signing up for the newsletter who thought they were being spammed, and if the newsletter was full of donation-begging... then that could easily seem worse.

On the other hand, I don't have a better solution I'm afraid. The license policy does seem strange, even if I understand mouser's reasons.

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