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NoteScribe or An extraordinary example of how not to market software

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peter.s:
(I shifted this post from the "bury your software here" sub-forum.)

I revive this 5-year-old thread since I wanted to see reviews for it. Now they got a redactional "review" from PCWorld, and a user review on CNet (no, not mine), both 5 years old, and the user told them the awful dark tree background had to be done with - no reaction to this in 5 years; they've got 13 screen shots on their websites, 5 years later, and every one of them makes you wish to flee - this software's gui is incredibly ugly - which is probably a shame since it has much functionality, of which many cannot be found elsewhere in that combination. But of course, developers "so bad in looks" should better listen when kind people give them some design advice, no?

And what about having changed the db engine, in 5 years? No info on that (that I would have found at least).

And then, why did I search for a review on it in the first place? Because they had had the chuzpe to more or less ask a review from Prof. Kühn, in his famed takingnotenow blog, and said he might download a trial from their website for this.

Of course, my immediate, spontaneous reaction to this was thinking, are those people nuts? I think that if you want a review on a blog that will give your product lots of exposure, the most basic thing on earth would be to offer a free version to the blogger, instead of inviting him to download himself a trial one.

Some people are so bad in marketing (incl. not listening to the only real reviewer in five years they've got) that their lack of success cannot be but worded as "they buried it deliberately".

I'm writing this in order to kindly invite other developers to learn from this exorbitant example in what-not-to-do.

And oh, yes, they rose the price from 22 to 50 $, but that's not the problem at all.

But allow for my shifting this post into the general software forum, since, as said, it is meant as a general example.

Innuendo:
Just because one is a programming genius does not make one adept at business/marketing. Even a college degree in programming is no guarantee. Some colleges make business and marketing classes part of the curriculum, but a lot do not.

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