Popup window in unregistered version

The popup screen when starting the program is really annoying and lasts way too long. I totally understand the concept that you want to make money with your program, and you want to encourage people to register. But I think you're going about it the wrong way. Many programs have a 30 day evaluation period, or some have a free lighter version and a "pro" version which costs money. Annoying the hell out of people who want to try out your product is NOT the way to go.

I think quality software should be supported, but making people annoyed and mad who try your program is not cool. What it does is encourage people to get a crack/keygen and use it for free, instead of encouraging people to register.

-Maddy

I'm not sure why a popup is any more likely to encourage someone to use a crack or keygen than having the program suddenly stop working after 30 days. I think somebody who's willing to use a crack is going to use it regardless of the particular shareware enforcement scheme.

Personally, the popup never really bothered me. I'd go get a cup of water, or read an email, or whatever while waiting the small number of seconds it took.

Look, I agree with you, however my experience was, that a couple of years back, when I make the reminder screen not "be on top" that for the month or so that this version was the current one, that registrations dropped to about 20% of the usual level.

I understand that some people will be so annoyed by the popup they won't register, and I have lost some registrations, and I genuinely regret that.

However others will find the absence of the popup makes it easier to forget to register. This second group is, apparently, much larger than the first.

People are different and different things bother different people. I personally can't stand any kind of delays because I want things to happen instantly. On the other hand, I'm sure there is tons of people who aren't bothered at all by the delay. Part of the problem is my personal habit of running only a few programs at the same time, and constantly quitting and restarting programs, so the effect of the delay was multiplied. So I felt that I was almost forced to register to use the program without properly trying it out.

Overall I think the program is great and good quality software and definitely something that should be supported.

-Maddy

Perhaps since the delay is annoying to some, have you tried an intermittent, or random appearance of the "Nag" screen? Somwthing like every other run, or every 3rd execution after the first?

I mean then you will still have something saying "Register Me Please, to Remove This Screen", AND also you will be slightly less annoying with the delay, for those that DO close and re-run it several times, as previously mentioned.

I say try that for a month, on the every other, and then if registrations drop then reimplement the old system.

Just my 2 cents,
Onoitsu2

I went about four+ years without paying for Mushclient, and just lived with the nag screen. I put Mushclient into my startup list and would start my computer and walk away, grab some coffee, then come back and the nag screen would already been about over.

For me, it wasn't the nag screen that sold me the product - it was how impressed I was with the program itself. However, the nag screen was a reminder each time I had to pick out the lucky number that I still hadn't really thanked Nick financially by paying for a license.

I guess what it boils down to is just everyone's personal preference and how they use Mushclient on the effectiveness of the nag screen. If I was constantly opening and closing Mush, I'm sure it would have bothered me more.

In the end though, you're sacrificing 30 seconds of your life to run the program without any limitations (minus the old spellchecker). 30 seconds asking you to pay for something that you apperently use multiple times a day.

I read on the MB a year or so ago some numbers Nick posted... Of the X thousand downloads each month of Mushclient, something like less than 30 licenses are purchased. Each download costs Nick money in bandwidth - not to mention product creation time, etc. Is it really worth griping about how his nag screen bothers you, instead of just buying a license? It's 20$, which I realize not everyone has readily available, but it isn't that much in the end. Putting a dollar aside for a month would pay for it and a half. He isn't asking a lot.

Matt

(P.S. I feel like I should start to work for PBS now :p)

The problem with this sort of scheme is, how do you know it is the 3rd execution? To do that you have to store some sort of execution count in a file. A canny user will then simply delete that file, or put it back to its original state, thus never seeing the nag screen. The same comment applies to some sort of "nag after 30 days" scheme.

A popular site for this sort of thing is the "system internals" site which seems to have recently joined the Microsoft stable.

http://www.microsoft.com/technet/sysinternals/default.mspx

Programs such as Filemon and Regmon can be used to track every file (or registry) access, filtered down to a particular application. Thus it is very easy to see what files a program is opening (or what registry keys).

Thanks for the complimentary remarks. :)

That was really the intention of the nag screen, to remind you to pay. However the program first has to "sell itself" by being fully featured (not crippled) so you can properly evaluate it.

Honestly, Ive been running it for a couple months, trying to really discove the extent to which I can use the program, deciding if zmud, or jmc might be better for me. So far I was pritty tied, leaning slightly more to mushclient because of the easy ability to attach sounds to my trigs, actions, exc, and to zmud for the serios quality mapper that works better on the mud I use than the mushclient one.

Whats sold me on mushclient is the forum support Ive been getting in trying to set a trigger up (and it is ALLOT harder in mushclient than zmud, but then again, I have a feeling mush is overall more powerfull)

A couple things Id like to see, or know how to do that I might have missed is :A:transparency, I like to be able to see through my window so I can see maps for the mud Im playing exc layed out behind, :B: differant skins, Im more of a darker type fan, really liking Mcesher and Gieger type skins allot.

Anyways, I think its worth the cash, now I just have to find the cash.


I leave mushclient running all the time and just sleep my computer, so I see the nag screen aprox ounce a week when I reboot.

That is coming out in the next version: 3.83.