On Sun, May 04, 2003, Max Gossell [EMAIL PROTECTED], invoked powers within the internet realm, to proclaim ...
>You don't need to do all that spam filtering yourself. This marvelous app >takes care of most of it for you: SpamSieve ><http://www.c-command.com/spamsieve/> I'm from the old school of shareware usage where the user actually gets to try out the shareware before being excessively annoyed with registration reminders. I just downloaded SpamSieve. Following the instructions, I copied the files where they are supposed to reside, then restarted PowerMail, chose a message to add to the "corpus", selected the appropriate SpamSieve AppleScript, and promptly got a dialog that prodded me to register. The dialog did not offer other choices, or recognize that I had just installed the application without an option to try out the software before paying for it. After switching to the desktop and hiding all applications, I went back to SpamSieve and watched the spinning cursor for several minutes before the menus popped up and I was able to look at the registration options, but the registration dialog remained. I quit SpamSieve hoping that the dialog would only occur the first run of SpamSieve - no such luck. The next time I chose to add a message to the corpus, I got the same dialog blocking my usage of PowerMail. This kind of protection scheme is far too annoying. SpamSieve doesn't work properly without giving it a few messages to recognize as good or bad, so making the dialog pop up each time the user is trying to accomplish a task that has to be done frequently is unacceptably excessive. I won't encourage shareware authors who practice unnecessary vexation to discourage thieves from stealing by treating everyone like a thief. As irritating and frustrating as spam is, I'd rather wait for another program to come along whose author doesn't lump everyone into a "dishonest criminal" category and treat them as such. The price is right, and I'd be willing to pay it, but my desperation isn't such that I could overlook this frequent intrusion, which is not at all my idea of shareware. I've turned down demos and other applications I was very interested in purchasing because of this rudeness, including programs I had already registered that changed their registration schemes. As long as I have a choice to seek other options, will continue to do so. I'll inform the author of my experience as well as others, because I certainly will not recommend it to anyone.
