🚀 go-pugleaf

: I know this thread is starting to go out of context for this group,
: but I felt a strong need participate.

: I couldn't agree with Sanjay more; the overwhelming majority of users
: just can't be trusted to pay their fair share for uncrippled software
: they use.  I've been in a similar situation as a shareware author.  I
: spent hundreds and hundreds of hours, over the course of 2 years,
: developing what I thought was useful and practical software (if anyone
: happened to be curious, it's called Fitter for the Amiga).  I tried to
: make it a solid application, complete with online context sensitive
: help, and loads of options and information to change on the fly.

: Because at the time, *I* hated the concept of crippled/timed out
: software, right up until the last version, I distributed it as "on
: your honor" shareware.  I think I gave a much better than average try
: to support and accomodate users who had requests for enhancements and
: changes; I never ignored an email, and even in the latest cases,
: responded in under three days, despite my busy agenda.

: With the exception of two that were major undertakings, I made every
: enhancement/change that was requested, and fixed every bug reported
: that I (or more than one user) could reproduce.

: Despite the meagre $7 (US) fee I asked for this full featured
: application, I received only ONE registration over the past 3 years.

: Unfortunately, it seems that the average user is just not honest
: ....unless they're forced to be because a package is crippled.  I
: deeply regret not doing it.

: It seems that everyone has some lame justification:

: "Well, I like it, but I want it to have <xxx> feature so I'm not
: registering it until the author puts it in.."

: "I found a bug, and therefore, it doesn't deserve to be registered"

: "Joe Blow didn't register it, and he's using it, so I won't register
: either."

: .
: .
: you get the point.

: It's a shame; I had always hoped shareware would be the wave of the
: 90s for home used software.  It's the very users that complain about
: crippled software that contribute to that problem of crippled software
: the most  (and notice that I've acknowledged cripped software *is* a
: problem; I don't like it either)

: Actually, I did get something from my experience, and that's just it-
: experience, in large application C projects, which is making me lots
: of money now :)

: BTW Sanjay, my fee's on it's way

: -Joe

One point that I would like to make, is that while I don't mind paying 
shareware fees for programs that I use, I find it REALLY frustrating to 
go the trouble of downloading a shareware demo only to find that since it 
was uploaded a long time ago, the trial period has expired before I even 
try it.  Please , all of you shareware developers , keep making good 
products, but if you are going to cripple them, makle the period start 
after download, NOT after upload.  

			Thanks,

			Ryan