>But yahoo, hotmail, ebay, amazon require you to sign in, in many >cases automatically each time you access your account. Its not so >much activation as its verification of an account in good standing.
All of these products use interfaces that work through the internet. Working through the internet is how they provide their functionality. Will yours be? If not, it seems a bad idea to force all of your users to have access to the internet. It would seem to make your application useless for some people and annoying to others. For modem users, waiting for the modem to hiss up to speed every time they use your application would probably be an inconvenience. Personally, I would resent having to do so for anything other than a one-time registration/activation. HOWEVER, if your application does require the internet for other functionality, then it might not be so bad since the user is already required to use a login. >It might be the case that all of get used to paying for >subscriptions, maintence... True. Is this a good thing? It makes me wonder why people think it's acceptable for companies to take advantage of them and then turn around and let their own companies take advantage of others. >For an example, look at us with RB, most of us have bought into >the "rapid release model" with little complaint - even though >bug fixes do not occur until the next quarter at the soonest by >which time your license may have expired so you are in essence >paying for bug fixes). I wish would could see a poll of everyone of RB's users to verify your (sadly, probably correct) assumptions. I also wonder how many have stopped--or soon will stop--using RB in favor of something else. Just because they're (apparently) relatively silent customers doesn't mean they're happy customers or even apathetic. It also doesn't mean they're gullible... Don't you want your customers to be happy? Happy customers will gladly purchase your quality products. Once we've profited enough and nearly everyone depends on us, maybe we can then begin strangling them for every dime we can get. Until something better comes along... I find RB's new plan repugnant. (Deleted a paragraph here because it's all been said before and seems to be pointless to do so again.) >We have all just accepted this proposal >and hope for the best with each release. This is another assumption. I have not renewed my license. However, I might, and probably will, reconsider when RB2007 is released. However, if their policies remain as they are now, I will do so unhappily. You seem to think RB's policies are bad. Hopefully you are not willing to lightheartedly project the same sort of attitude toward your customers. One last thing--what happened to the Mac user attitude? I would think many of them/us would be up-in-arms over this sort of philosophy. It seems to scream Microsoft. Actually, it seems worse. _______________________________________________ Unsubscribe or switch delivery mode: <http://www.realsoftware.com/support/listmanager/> Search the archives of this list here: <http://support.realsoftware.com/listarchives/lists.html>
