First up the move to another server is complete. A couple of brief hiccups with htaccess and a couple of wayward WordPress plugins fixed and we’re back online. 
Across on his blog Ian Landsman has a brief, but to the point, article that’s well worth a read. Are developers who release free software lazy and to scared to charge and face “real customers”? 
It’s an intriguing contention and one with some merit. Ian says:
Customer service is almost always viewed as a necessary evil. Annoying customers always poking around looking for answers to things which are right in front of them and causing us to take time out of programming to help them. So this leads into the great cop-out. Make it beta and hey, make it free. Those 2 tags let the programmer get out of so much. Customer has a problem? Screw off, it’s free. Can’t find a phone number or email address to contact us by? Screw off, it’s free.
While I accept there are always exceptions I don’t find this argument at all spurious. I’ve been a member of a number of software (mISV) trade associations, participated in various forums for several decades and moderated three newsgroups aimed at small developers starting or running small software companies for ten years, before I retired as the primary moderator. In each of the instances above I’ve found the world is brimming with lazy, scared (and both) developers. Hell, they even get angry when they ask for suggestions for assisting their business and the answer you give forces them to abandon their laziness or scared mindsets.
- Write content for my website? No way! I’m no writer. I don’t have time.
- Start a blog? No way! I’m no writer. I don’t have time.
- Avoid using PAD files? What are you? Some kind of heretic? Download sites are my friend!
- Incoming links are the answer to SEO! Why would I bother with your suggestions to actually work or make a fool of myself writing?
- All I have to do is submit PAD files and sit back and wait for all those sales! Go way oh philistine Kane!
While I fall short of being contemptuous of these answers (not just given to me) I admit to getting extremely peeved. To the point where I rarely attempt to help anymore. But to the point of the “lazy + scared = free” equation. I think it goes further. It extends to the same mentality that prices software at $10, 19.99 and I’ll say it “29.99”. This is 1990’s pricing. While internet access and hosting has gotten cheaper, admittedly two major expenses for online sales, bread, milk, petroleum and the cost of sending your kids to even a basic school has more than tripled since then. Are you pricing because you’re lazy or scared?
Scott Kane
Quote Of The Day
“When we came we had a drought. Then the floods put the bushfires out”.
(Theme Song From On Our Selection soundtrack. 1995)
Free is the future. Deal with it.