What Turns You Off About Evaluation Software?

An Anonymous Coward asks: "I work at a mid-tier software company (which shall remain nameless, lest I draw attention to myself). Recently we have started making 30 day evaluation versions of our software available for download after prospects register. An email containing a username and password is sent to the registrant a few hours after submission. We have been surprised to find that not a few registrants don't actually go on to download the software. We make the file size and system requirements clear up front. I would guess some slashdot readers get involved in evaluations. What process do you go through? Why might you stop short of actually downloading the software?"

community outreach

[Anonymous Coward]

Greetings, I am a representative of a think-tank in a large country. I am sending out a call to all parties who have been injured by the supporting and using of linux. There are numerous subtle, dangerous, and long-lived side-effects from using linux. I am putting together a portfolio of these deleterious effects. It would be a great help for all if you list here some of the travails you've endured as a result of linux use. But more importantly, we need to hear about how you were tricked into using linux, and were hurt by it. You might think your linux use has been benign, but later you may discover problems.

I never get the confirmation

[BurritoWarrior]

...since I use Cowboy Neal's email address for all registration forms.

it's the Pointy Haired Boss

[bunyip]

Often, the Pointy Haired Boss (PHB) has an urgent need for me to evaluate some Left-Handed Swivelhopper, so I sign up for the eval. By the time I'm ready to try it out, the urgent need has changed, I'm chasing Object-Oriented Dooverlackies.

I've often downloaded large files (>100MB even), then lost interest or found another way to solve my problem. Oops - I think I just admitted that I even change my own priorities! Oh well......

Re:You answered your own question

[Rendwich]

It's not too surprising that if Hugh G. Rection or Haywood Jablomie registers, they don't actually receive the email (hint: Whomever filled out the registration used *a fake email address*). And if they don't get the email, they can't use the secret-decoder ring to download the crippled software.

The spam, the passwords, the crippled software, it all sounds so appealing. Wonder why it doesn't work better?

Re:I dont enter my email

[cropserion]

2. No registration crap.

If you're serious about trying out the software and would seriously consider purchasing it, giving them an e-mail so a representative can contact you for support makes sense. Not really for like winzip, but if you're downloading a trial of a professional software package it's more professional, in my opinion, if after downloading it you get an e-mail from Bob Soandso and his phone number if you have any questions about how to use the software, etc.

I have to agree with the AC on this one, if you are really trying a piece of software then you should enter an email addr.

Personally I have my own domain and all emails sent to that domain goto the one mailbox by default, so when filling out a web form I will always use a different_name@mydomain for the name portion of the address. I always try to use a name similar to the company who want my address, for instance I would use redhat@mydomain when filling out a form on the redhat site.
Then if I find that I am receiving alot of spam to a particular address I will then block all mails to that address in sendmail. I also try to find the sales and support email address of the company who sold my address to the spammers and I will sign up their address for newsletters from some of the sickest porn sites I can find.

I guess for most people this isn't an option but it works for me :)

all the obvious

[citricacid]

Hmm. Well, I take it you've never sat on the monkey side of the programmer->supportmonkey flow of power.

Here's how it goes: I sit reading Slashdot, furrowing my brow feriously. A problem arises or my boss gets a fantastically [stupid] idea. I curse the gods of mediocrity that prevent me from rising any higher in the IT field, then I bust into monkey action... I need software to get a job done, the boss refuses to pay money for the correct solution, it's time to find some evaluation crap, rig something up, and let the boss worry about it when the license expires and my rigged solution isn't legal anymore.

1) I chart out my ideas, go over my available tools (not many, or I wouldn't be in this position), and figure out what parts I'll need from the outside.

2) I go to the outside. Software repositories, google, a few monkey message boards, the usual.

3) I download everything that looks close.

4) I install each program, one by one, and try to cram it into my preplanned solution.

5) I pick my favorites, modify my solution to their inevitable flaws (they're free = sub-perfect), and start on the three-crates-and-a-banana testing phase.

6)I'm a monkey, so I just bang the crates into each other until the banana falls down.

7) You e-mail the fake address I gave you back in step 3 because I'm angry and don't give a f--- about your information database.

8) Magically, the e-mail makes it to me anyway. If it doesn't get filtered, I delete it anyhow because I'm already at least in the testing stage.

Monkey power, baby. I'm who you're selling to. If you're going to make any money, it's because I tell the boss in a month that I refuse to let us use your tool because it's illegal. The only way I'm going to do that is if I don't hate you, and your product works.

Making me register makes me hate you. Worse, it gives your competitors a fat lead into my mindspace; and I'm lazy, so I'm not about to change my views when you come begging.

Monkey power.

Re:Click-through EULA?

[Anonymous Coward]

If you take the email registration info before presenting the EULA, then you could be losing people there.

Maybe you're supposed to read the EULA during the few hours they take to process your request. i.e. "According to our estimates, reading this EULA should take 3h52min. Your registration key will be waiting for you when you're done reading."

Re:Joel's rule

[Loki_1929]

Good,
Then by Xeno's Paradox, [bbc.co.uk] you'll never lose all your customers! This should be an investor's dream company.

How to manage evaluations versions

[lfourrier]

First, 30 days is ways too short for a big company to efficiently evaluate a product.

So, the method:
1.go to yahoo
2.create an email account
3.note it on a post-it
4.go fill the form
5.download the software
6.receive your key on yahoo
7.trash the post-it

after the (short) evaluation period:
steps 1. 2. 3. 4. 6 and 7. from previous method
-> no download

CQFD

Redundancy

[mrfiddlehead]

<rant>
Okay, okay, okay. We all know that registration and giving out your goddamn email address turns all of you /.er's off. But, for companies pursuing this type of distribution model, /. is probably the very last place you should ask about this -- unless you're trying to sell software to cheap bastards who expect everything for free but, most of whom, give back abso-fucking-lutely nothing, to keep track of their warez.
</rant>

BTW, if you expect users to wait for a login to arrive in their email, then you shouldn't be surprised that many of them don't bother with the download. And, on top of that, you shouldn't be surprised to discover that, of those who do download the software, a good portion will not bother installing it anyway (it's free! I'll download it! Done. Aw fuckit).

As an 'about to give up' shareware programmer I'd say forget about the free downloads. Make 'em pay up front and you'll know that they'll install it. Offer them an MONEY BACK GUARENTEE and have one of 'dem statistical accountancy types figure out how much will actually be reclaimed.

What really burns my ass, as a shareware programmer (who also does open source linux kernel programming BTW), is the fucking attitude of these cheap bastard /. types who send me email, critisize my placement of a button in a dialog box, demand a never ending stream of features and then bitch about the fact that it's shareware. I'd be a fucking millionaire if I had a dollar for every time I heard one of these cheap bastards say, "add this feature and I'll register your software, otherwise forget it". This is why your business model will never work. When I started the business as shareware, I and other shareware programmers, thought we were being altruistic by offering the ability to try before you buy (I started doing this in the late 80's under Windoze 3.1).

Well, good luck, and a big FUCK YOU to all the cheap bastards.

A little late in the process, but MOD ME UP ya bunch of cheap bastards.

Re:Radio Shack

[Carnivore]

It's actually better for the ShackDrone if you just give them fake info. The are rated by the percent of purchases for which they get a name/address combo, but the names/addresses aren't checked.

One of my friends, as a joke, made the person 'Fag Ass' for one of my other friends. Prints on the recipt. Ha Ha. The next time someone didn't give his name, my friend just hit 'a', and lo and behold 'Ass, Fag' came up. He did this for a while and got a commendation for 100% name/address ratio, then he got fired when a bigwig noticed the name.