˙˙00˙ ˙00˙01˙03˙01Thoughts on the Shareware Scene˙00 ˙ ˙ ˙03˙02PUH / AGONY ˙02˙01˙01˙00˙˙01 ˙Let us first establish a few things... 1. Let's say I make a cool program which I decide to release to the public as shareware. After all, some money would be nice. 2. I understand that a lot of people will use my program without as much as thinking of paying anything whatsoever. This leaves me with two choices; either I let them use it, or I add some extra super hero function that only will work for those who send a nearly symbolic sum of money to me. Now, that's where we are today; there are extremely many shareware programs out there. Most of them trust not in trance but in the honesty of us, the users, to send them some money or other kinds of gifts. Do they get anything sent to them? Yes, as a matter of fact some do get quite a lot of it (where IT refers to as different things as pure cash and Polish porno magazines), even though I doubt that YES describes the overall situation. No, I believe that most of us users are like me, i.e. they are too lazy to register, or even care, for that matter. I are not stupid, though; I realize that if everybody was like me, shareware would be a mere dream. I sure as hell use many shareware programs frequently, and the best thing I have done so far is that I have e-mailed some of their authors, saying "Hey, pal, nice program, great work!". Now, that's not much to come with, hah? Then we have the "Register and I will enable the super feature for you" section. I can perfectly understand the reasons for this, even though I actually believe that it feels somewhat... ...wrong? Pseudocommercial, maybe? Anyway, I gather this feature-unlocking mean more registered users, and, consequently, more (well deserved) money. My program would definitively be among these, even though I dislike them now, not having any program to boast out. Now, that's what I call sitting on two chairs. What, then, should I do, being too selfish to send away my sourly earned money. Hmm... Well, isn't that e-mailing enough? No, of course it isn't. I know that I would have wanted cash (or at least funny items) for my program, not just encouraging e-mails. OK, it'd be nice with some mail, but as we say over here, the swallows fly easily over the heavy burdens (I never really did figure out what that means). A logical step when not receiving any money for my shareware program would be to try to go commercial. This is, of course (here too), impossible, so I have only two choices: 1) continue making the program, earning money that will provide me with at least a pack of cigarettes every month, or 2) quit. Now, the thing is that it is a quite nasty feeling to watch your own production grow in front of you; in fact, the word FUN (en skön grej) can be used to describe the whole situation, which makes it BORING to stop even if you don't get any money. I know, Oepir Risti has learned me that you can have much much (much) fun without gaining money or fame; that quality is, after all, what goes for anything in my life. (If you believe that money can buy you love, you and I don't share the same definition of love) Now, what is it that I want to say when things come around? Well, I don't really know. Any suggestions so far? No, seriously, I believe we would be better of registering for some of our favourite programs. However, I know that I will NOT do this, so I am kinda feeding the pigs with pearls (another of those sayings which nobody really understands). I have only registered for one program (Pro-Wizard), and it turned out that he was a nice guy. I got myself a blasting version which I am really proud of and use a lot. That's it. Oh, by the way, another thing, addressed to those of you who are into this biz: WHY THE HELL DON'T YOU ADVERTISE? Write about your product in Oepir Risti, and virtually any other disk magazine and equivalent publications! How hard can it be, how much can it cost? Not that hard and nothing, respectively. You are hereby invited to publish a (free) article / advert / whatever in the coming Oepir Risti issues. It would be good for you with nice publicity, and it would be nice for us with some more articles. Oh, by the way, do mail me. I'd really like some registered versions of my favourite programs. ˙ ˙˙02puh@one.se˙01 ˙ ˙01