Saxonia Issue 02 Part 040

Published in

· 5 years ago

  

A new kind of shareware 
By Rumrunner/VOID 
[l 

We all know the sharewareconcept, try out a program and then register and 
pay for it if you like it, that is. Sometimes, the program in question is 
limited in some way or another, for instance a trackerprogram may have a 
limit on available patterns, texteditors might not be able to save the 
file or load in files bigger than 20k and so on. You get the full version 
when you register and pay the author. The full version might be a 
complete new program the author sends you after receiving payment, in 
that case, you will always get the latest version of the program in 
question. Another situation is that you only need a keyfile or some kind 
of keycode to type into the program in order to "unlock" all locked 
functions. 

This is something we all know about. The concept might work out allright 
for all I know, however, I think that spreading socalled [2 crippled[0  
programs may not give the best impression of you program. I know for sure 
that I would perhaps pay for a program I could use to the full already, 
if it was any good, that is, however, seeing half a program doesn't 
motivate me enough to even test it out. Watching boring 
[1 blablabla-pay-me-please[0  screens isn't something I want to spend my 
life on. 

However, I have a new idea that could perhaps motivate people to work for 
the scene. Take a note of the following word, if you ever see it somewhere, 
you know where the idea came from : 

          [2 Sceneware[0  

That's it, not so far away from shareware that it will scare anybody away, 
is it? The point behind this is that there are possible some scenepeople 
or at least ex ones that make some of the available shareware. If the 
program is made for fun, because you like coding, why not let the users 
who enjoy the program pay in the following way : 

[1 - show me that you have done something for the scene, either coded a 
  demo/intro, drawn a picture, composed a module, written articles for a 
  mag or similar. If you can prove this (send a copy of your work), then I 
  will send you the registered version of the program in question.[0  

For every scener who have made a utility or whatever, isn't other sceners 
often the main target group?