Path: utzoo!utgpu!watserv1!watcgl!electro!ignac
From: ignac@electro.UUCP (Ignac Kolenko)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.atari.st
Subject: Re: Shareware Policy.
Message-ID: <1295@electro.UUCP>
Date: 1 Feb 90 02:01:14 GMT
References: <3063@dogie.macc.wisc.edu> <1940@laura.UUCP>
Reply-To: ignac@electro.UUCP (Ignac Kolenko)
Organization: Electrohome Ltd., Kitchener, ON
Lines: 53

In article <1940@laura.UUCP> klute@heike.informatik.uni-dortmund.de (Rainer Klute) writes:
>If the shareware author does really want to see any money he
>has to find out how he can "encourage" the user to pay. This
>can be done be offering some additional benefit for paying. I
>tried this with my Arcgsh from version 2.1 upwards: From time
>to time a dialog box pops up and asks the user to pay for the
>program. He then can click any button and the program
>continues. This procedure has two advantages:
>
>1. Occasional use of Arcgsh: The user can take full advantage
>   of the program without paying. The "Please pay your
>   shareware donation" dialog boxes he can ignore. He is not
>   *forced* to pay. The boxes will not disturbe him too much
>   because he uses Arcgsh seldom.
>
>2. Regular use of Arcgsh: The frequent popping up of those
>   dialog boxes gets really annoying and the user wants to get
>   rid of them. And this is exactly what he gets if he pays his
>   shareware donation.
>
>Experience has shown that this procedure works very well.



this is actually a very common technique among shareware authors.
before quickst went commercial, the last couple of demo shareware versions
that loaded from the auto folder would purposely put all kinds of
ordering information and "propaganda" on the screen and forcibly made the
user press a key before continuing. this way, people who didn't want to
upgrade to the shareware version (with no such messages or keypress waits)
could still use the program, but they would have to endure the "press any
key" condition EVERY time they would reboot. we got lots of shareware
contributions after that, with almost all letters asking (hoping!) that
the registered owner version not have such things. and of course, that
is the incentive of registering: you get a clean, properly working version
with enhancements and further bug fixes from when the shareware version came
out and the entitlement to receive future updates whenever they become
available. 

of course, there are people who will actually take the time and disassemble
shareware programs and remove the offending code which pops up the
dialog boxes, or forces a keystroke before continuing, etc. for the
three hours they spent disassembling and debugging, even someone working
at mcdonalds at $5 an hour could have broken even (at least for quick st)
by sending in their contribution ... but that's their choice!!! :-) :-) :-) 



-- 
=====Ignac A. Kolenko (The Ig)=====watmath!watcgl!electro!brasoft!ignac======
     co-author of QuickST, and the entire line of Quick Software!!!!
  Branch Always Software Box 2624, Station B, Kitchener, Ont. CANADA N2H 6N2
=============================================================================