* Peter da Silva <[email protected]> [2007-08-17 14:00]: > So while Sidetrack isn't doing anything that would keep me from > being a customer, it's certainly possible to go too far down > this path
Didn't I say it's a balancing act? That wasn't supposed to mean the nagging or restrictions should be as obnoxious as possible; certainly nowhere near bad enough to warrant the crippleware label. They just need to be persistent enough to not let the freeloaders forget. It's not the impediment that will really piss them off; it's the constant reminder that they're freeloading. Whether it stings a guilty consciousness or an offended sense of entitlement doesn't matter. (Sounds just like Sean, if you ask me.) So the nag screen can (and should) actually be very low-key. But (and this is actually empirically proven) nag screens really do improve sales as long as they're not so bad that they immediately drive away the curious. There are a lot of people that aren't pirates and don't want to do illegal stuff, but will avoid paying if they can. These are the people you want to remind that "hey you, this is not free beer". Some of them will continue to live with the reminder indefinitely, even. But they won't get a cracked copy in any case, and many of them will pay. This seems to be the experience of many indie Mac developers at least. There is almost certainly a business case for low-key nagging. Regards, -- Aristotle Pagaltzis // <http://plasmasturm.org/>
