captain's log Dingens - Made in Germany

About Free for Non-Commercial Use Software User Interaction

Ok, so you published a useful product as freeware. Later you decide to turn it into shareware and cut down the features of the free for non-commercial use version. That's ok, nothing bad about it, really, especially as the limitations...

This entry was first published on June 07, 2004, 02:56 AM, CET and categorized as Misc.

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Ok, so you published a useful product as freeware. Later you decide to turn it into shareware and cut down the features of the free for non-commercial use version. That's ok, nothing bad about it, really, especially as the limitations do not render the product useless. It is ok, too, to support only the premium users; Your product is pretty intuitive to use for the average user and prioritizing feature requests, bug reports and general feedback from paying users is not a bad decision.

But, locking down the website for your product so that no one will be able to contact you in any way until (s)he becomes a registered user is not a great decision. Not only will this leave potential customers unable to ask questions about their specific needs (they can try to figure it out by using the free for non-commercial use version, but if there is no help file included with the product they are left alone in trial and error), this lockdown cuts off the users of the free for non-commercial use version (which might just satisfy their needs) from reporting bugs, which may not be caught by the premium users. And it is not too hard to add a simple contact form and assigning the mails send through this form a low priority in your mail client. Ignoring these users might be bad for the future of your product, too: they could have a great idea to improve your product, but you will never know as they cannot reach you.

So, the moral of this entry is: do not ignore any user feedback. Doing so will make the ignored users feel like second class citizens and hurts the advancement of your product. If you fear spam, bad feedback, personal attacks, whatever, you should rethink your way of distributing your product.