🚀 go-pugleaf

On Friday, in article <876376122wnr@chaldea.demon.co.uk>
     finn@chaldea.demon.co.uk "Finn Winter" wrote:

..
FW> 2) A request for help. I have never released shareware before, and
FW>    I wondered if anyone could point me to any information on the
FW>    the subject - for instance, what newsgroups to post to in search
FW>    of beta-testers or to announce the final release, what legal 
FW>    disclaimers I should put in the documentation to protect myself, 
FW>    what ftp sites to upload the program to, the best way to protect 
FW>    unregistered versions of the programs against hackers and so on.

I imagine you'd find beta testers in demon.ip.support.winsock.

For other issues relevant to shareware authors I used to read
alt.comp.shareware.  I say 'used to' because the guy who created
it couldn't be persuaded that it was an extremely ill-chosen
name, and soon enough the group became inundated with enquiries
about where to find particular items of shareware, instead of
the authors' discussions intended.  Perhaps by now there's a
group FAQ.  And a number of people there know about the Assoc
of Shareware Professionals, which is certainly worth you finding
out about, though I never took the plunge and joined.

But what are your reasons for wanting to release shareware?
If you want the income that good shareware (might) generate,
you need to research your target market very carefully.  IMO,
on the Internet there is a tradition of mutual help, publishing
source code, and a project has to be a major product to make
it worth distributing as anything but freeware.

Perhaps others have different views.  I've not put out any
shareware since having a Demon a/c.  Should I switch to
doing shareware?

Good luck with your project, Finn.

--
John Washington