Path: utzoo!utgpu!watserv1!watmath!att!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!pt.cs.cmu.edu!andrew.cmu.edu!es2q+
From: es2q+@andrew.cmu.edu (Erik Warren Selberg)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac.programmer
Subject: Re: Shareware and $$ (was Re: Public Domain Software programming)
Message-ID: <4a9IPq600WB60rxFAx@andrew.cmu.edu>
Date: 13 Apr 90 03:26:46 GMT
Organization: Carnegie Mellon, Pittsburgh, PA
Lines: 26

well, from all the discussion here, I'd like to voice my views.  I'll agree
that most shareware authors will only succeed marginally -- shareware is more
of a "getting started" endeavor to raise capital/notice before going
commercial.  With my semi-mindless online games I'm more or less forced to
be shareware as it's such a niche product (albeit I could go completely
commercial with some policy wording changed).  I personally do the "crippleware"thing (a self-destruct after 14 days without a 2K file), and find it works
rather well.

However, I would like to mention one thing:  a shareware author shouldn't
expect to make fortunes from shareware.  There are exceptions, there are
good authors out there (for those on Fido, Pete Johnson really comes to mind),
but for the most part most shareware authors I've known usually created some
program for fun/something to do for them, decided it would be neat to show it
off, and attached a "shareware" label.  I'm not saying that they don't
deserve some compensation for using it, I'm just pointing out that many
products tend to be classified as "goodies" or semi-cusom software with
minimal support, which is a good reason shareware tends not to work.

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