we may be getting rid of the need to return to the site in 6 months..
but let me offer my opinion on nagware and expiration stuff.
if a program pops up nags constantly, let's say once a day or once a
week or more, until you BUY the full version, then to me i wouldn't
call that freeware. the nags are too obnoxious and would interfere
with normal use. to me thats not freeware since the pain of using it
freely is too high.
if a program expires and stops working until you BUY the full version,
that's certainly not freeware.
in our case, the programs will never stop working.
a nag does come up asking you to sign up at our forum for a free
license key. after that the nag will dissapear for 6 months, at which
point it will come up again asking you to visit our site again and get
a renewed key. 6 months after that you can download a never-expiring
(never-again-nagging) license that works on all of our software.
the idea is simply to try to remind people who really use our software
that we are working our hearts out and try to get them to visit our
site and see what we've done in the last 6 months and get them to give
a few seconds of thought to the idea of donating. if they email us and
say they know they are never going to donate then we just send them the
non-expiring key right away.
i do still *personally* consider our approach freeware (and
donationware) because of the minimal nature of the requirements to use
the program. [i also consider "registerware" to be freeware, and would
say that we are registerware also].
having said all that, we are considering removing the need for the 6
month return to the site, in place of a page that asks the person to
read a statement about the site and indicate then and there that they
do not ever want to be bothered by us again. but note this will still
involve and initial nag and need to sign up to get a (non-expiring)
license key. if we didn't do that then people would be downloading our
software from 3rd party sites and never even visit our site a single
time to find out what we are about.
let me also add that we have never, and will never, share any signup
info (email is all we ask for at signup) with anyone.
I have said in the past, i do understand that freeware advocates are
very protective of the term, and don't want it to get diluted by
software that isn't really free. it is our intention to keep to what i
feel are the core principles: software that you do not have to pay for,
do not have to do non-trivial steps to obtain, and and which does not
pester you in non-trivial ways.
I realize that requiring the person to sign up at our forum and
download a license key is annoying to users and that most would rather
not do so. please take a look at the article we wrote about this
(
http://articles.donationcoder.com/One/index.html) for a long
discussion about why we decided we had to do it.
People can and do occasionally donate 1 cent to us; anything under a
donation of 25 cents is taken completely by paypal so we receive
nothing. nonetheless such donations are accepted as granting full
lifetime membership on our site, with a full non-expiring license key
for all of our programs. The point i'm just trying to emphasize is the
same one at the heart of the article - which is that our aim is simply
to get people to pause and consider whether they want to support our
work, and get them to consider what we are asking for and why. Not to
punish people for not donating. We're also happy to give anyone a full
refund for any donation they ever make.
I wish I had a source of income that would allow me to program and not
have to ask for donations. I am not a big fan of capitalism, and i
find the distribution of income in this world depressing as hell. It
seems like everything is designed to separate the world into super rich
people and those who must struggle every day to get by. My interest is
to find a way to keep our software free for everyone with the smallest
amount of inconvenience that can still get people to spend a few
seconds of their life considering whether we are a worthy cause to
donate to. I wish most things were donation-based (music, software,
etc.) and that people were willing to donate what they could afford and
thought something was worth. It would offer a way for people who make
stuff to get enough money to live on (maybe) and still make the stuff
available to everyone without regard for income.
Whether you like our software and approach or not, or ESPECIALLY if
not, ask yourself how often you use a freeware program and have not
sent an email to the author saying thank you, or donated to the author
when they have a donation button. Lots of authors have freeware and
have a button where you can make a donation to them. Do you? Have you
ever seen freeware get abandoned or never finished, or always lacking a
finished help file? or no support forum? Most freeware authors want
nothing more than to keep programming for the love of it, but then they
get to some point where they have to buy food and pay rent, and unless
they are independently wealthy, they have to make hard decisions about
where to spend their time. I encourage you to donate to authors before
they get to that point. If you have some freeware software you really
like, i encourage you strongly to go visit the authors site and see if
he/she accepts donations, and if so, send them a little. show them
that their work is appreciated and make it possible for them to afford
to keep working on it.
