In any discussion in which there is discension, there are those who can be reasoned with and those who are just locked into a certain point of view and won't change no matter what.
That's why people like Plastic and Integer are at the top of my list of people whose perspectives matter so much. I've talked to Plastic privately for a long while because he is passionate in his views and articulate in his reasons.
I think Integer is the same way.
Let's look at the issues raised:
#1 Me asking DesktopX users to participate in on-line surveys.
Response:
There is often more than meets the eye. Very often, there are organized groups that see our software as a threat and make a coordinated attempt to try to smear it. The "skin community" is really just a tiny part of the entire customization world. In certain Mac and Linux groups, DesktopX is "the devil" because it brings to Windows the ability to do many of the things once exclusive there. When DesktopX came out, there were Usenet posts with the link to DesktopX (and WindowBlinds) urging those users to "bash it down". My response was to try to counter that to an extent.
And our software is uniquely vulnerable to smear tactics like that. Why? Because most shareware works like this: You download it and it brings up a nag screen and you then can enter in a registration number and the nag screen goes off an dmore features show up. Our software is different. We have a seperate enhanced version. Once soemone buys our software, they never need to go to a download site again to get new versions. They get it directly from us. Thus, over time, the only ones downloading them from a download site are the ones who have not registered it but may have been exposed to it before.
#2 Statistical analysis
Response:
Stats are part of business. The difference being that we share those stats rather than keep them secret. I think one of the reasons why Stardock has been so successful has been its obsession with statistical analysis. It allows us to support customers much more effectively and respond to market changes much quicker.
#3 Skin Primer.
This is one of the things that chaffes me actually. Why hasn't someone else put together a good detailed skin primer (I've read the one that was linked to on Tek, I'm talking a REAL primer that goes over the main apps). Anyone could do it. They didn't. I did. And I covered apps competitive to Stardock's. If the "free beer" people don't like that, they need to start doing more work themselves. I wrote the primer on my own time. There's no excuse for someone else not having done it.
#4 TGTSoft
This is one of those things where the issue had been going on for months but only came to the local sites we think about here in November. I could take the time and document post by post demonstrating clearly that we turned the other cheek for literally weeks before we finally began to defend ourselves. I could also document many examples of fake users coming out and trashing us (I don't know if all those fake users were related to TGTSoft or not but I already provided a documented case of a fake user of TGTSoft's that they admitted to ever getting caught). We spent months quietly and politely trying to get them to stop implying that their program was a skin program. Even now, if you visit their site, it's quite clearly implied to be a skinning program. It's not. It's a patch. Now they try to make it look like it's not a patch with beta 4. It's still a patch, it just patches in memory. It still disables MS's file security. But you'd think it was some sort of new skinning app with "0 footprint", etc. The perception you came away with I think is the result of the order in which you read responses.
I can see the other issues on how one could see them the other way. But the TGTSoft one is one that anyone who's followed this closely can tell you isnh't even a close call. There is no moral equivalency here. Not a matter of "company A and B battling it out." It's more like company A attacking company B over and over and finally company B defending itself with facts.
All that said, from readin gwhat you and Plastic have said I can see your points of view. I said in another post that from a neutral observer, Stardock could look like a growing thing gobbling up all the niches once held by freeware authors and leaving in its wake a commercialized "community".
I'm not sure what can be done about that because that perception is based on fact - to a degree. I think people who work on something full time can do a lot better job than eople who work on something part time. And users will pick the thing that is better whether it be software or a skin. And unfortunately, freeware generlaly requires it to b developed by someone part time. So it has a hard time competing with the thing being made by someone who's working on it full time.
Shoggot may prefer Illumination but let's be real, users have chosen WindowBlinds over alternatives because it is the best by a massive margin. And that's because it has a team of people who do nothing but work on it. And that's because they get paid to do so. Which in turn has to be passed on to users. And for most (not all) adults, $20 is basically the same as free.
Phew!
