🚀 go-pugleaf

>>>>> "Sanjay" == Sanjay S Vakil <sanj@athena.mit.edu> writes:

Sanjay> I don't understand why people feel that
Sanjay> crippleware/timeoutware is such a crime.  Sure, it's less
Sanjay> ideal than 'true' shareware, but the market has expanded way
Sanjay> beyond people you can 'trust' to send in shareware fees.  For
Sanjay> example, I'm *sure* that there are more than 24 people out
Sanjay> there enjoying Mahjongg, but the registrations have pretty
Sanjay> much halted.  This is a powerful push towards crippling my
Sanjay> next release.
Sanjay> sanj

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