🚀 go-pugleaf

                     Shareware USERS Survey

I have recently had some discussions/arguments that can really be
settled with your help.  I want to know how profitable shareware
distribution has been.  I would appreciate your help.

All responses will be held strictly anonymous.  I will present
only aggregated data.

I will NOT ask any questions that require you to admit criminal
activity (eg, violating a shareware agreement by not
registering).  Do not answer questions that might provide such
information.  And, of course, you may omit responses to any
question(s) as you wish.

I will post a summary to the groups comp.os.msdos.programmer, 
alt.msdos.programmer and rec.games.programmer.  Additionally, 
I will email a summary to interested parties--to ensure anonymity, 
you may send a request in a separate note.

Of course, please add any comments at the bottom.  Thank you very
much for your time.

Please mail responses & etc to: amead@s.psych.uiuc.edu

Alan D Mead
University of Illinois
Champaign, IL 
USA

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1) Have you used at least one product as shareware?

If no, thanks for your time.

If yes then:

2) How many shareware products did regularly use?


Please categorize them as 
    B)usiness application, 
    E)ducational game or educational application, 
    G)ame, 
    H)ome or hobby application, 
    O)ther (please explain), 
    P)rogramming application, 
  peR)sonal organizer (eg, phone archiver & dialer), 
    T)utor, or 
    U)tility.

3) How much is an average registration?



[Do NOT answer the following question if you do not wish to.]
4) About how have you spent on shareware?  



5) One which of the above types?



If any of your products were "crippled" or limited in any way,
did that seem to have an effect on:

6) your acceptance of the product?


7) your willingness to pass the product along to friends & etc?


8) your willingness to become a registered user?



9) Please indicate how you have received shareware:

H   for each product from a shareware distributing house
B   for each product from a BBS
I   for each product from a internet archive site
N   for each product from a note group (eg, *.binaries)


10) What factors lead you TO register or NOT to register for a
product?  (morality, quality of product, product was crippled/
limited, support, game hints, printed manual, price was right,
availability of source, etc...)


11) IF you have become a registered user:  what problems did you
encounter with the shareware and what would you have done
differently?  Would you register more shareware?


12) Finally, did you encounter any difficulties with foreign
orders?  How did you make payment(s)?