Com-Central.net

Read about it here.

www.sim-outhouse.com/s...ht=Payware

Well, that puts a different spin on things for me. I have to say I was seeding their torrent files for quite some time and now they want to charge for updated versions of their work? Hmmm...

I think "horn swaggled' comes to mind here. IF they were going to charge or figured on charging for their services, they should have been up front and said that from the beginning. Regardless of the fact that OFF v1 was free, I can't help but feel 'bait and switched' by this next 'move' to secure funding.

If their supporters who were donating funds did so out of good faith, then that's the method they should stick to. Just my opinion...

Mmmmm. Well on the one hand I can see the point about the above-average level of work and the supoprt as well. A project like this takes over one's life.

On the other hand, going the payware route doesn't necessarily make things any better. You've got a limited customer base complicated by the fact that people have now spent money and expect a professional payware product with the QA, testing and tech support that it implies.....and the level of multi-platform testng and support for commercial products is far higher and more stringent, more complex, and time-consuming than any support they have done yet, I gaurantee that. Anyone on that team familiar with SCM/CMM standards and can they meet them for a payware product? It's a very tough row to hoe, tougher in many many ways 'specially when you're looking at a small customer base of diehard CFS3 users to begin with.

No doubt there will be a lot of folks who feel a bit taken aback about the change of direction also and this ain't gonna be purty!! Shucks I was just getting ready to download it but have been painting at every opportunity.....guess I'll get back to skinning fr8ycat's fine OH-6........freeware doncha know.....

I agree about something invading one's life to the point of total immersion...lol

And the tech support point is well made..

But, I still think that their intentions should have been made known from the beginning and if they had intended for their release to be free then decided to go payware due to the popularity, then to me, it's the wrong way to handle this situation. In other words, if the first release was a beta, let the beta testers have all the releases for free then and charge the non beta testing community.

Personally I don't think CFS3 was popular enough to demand pay-for add ons, and this situation will probably 'cure' itself, but that's just my opinion...

Oh, I absolutely agree - but - to think this may have been the intention from the beginning may just be giving them too much credit. They might just not have realized what the incredibly time-consuming task of support would have entailed, and had a majority of team members gripe about doing all that for free (when the mindset usually is "Hey, it's finally released, we can relax now!"...NO SIR, you can't!) , and voila...likely as the result of much internal discussion you have a decision like this being made after-the-fact.

As one who's been there and done that I do NOT envy them and part of me wants to wish them all the best in an effort like that. Being a limited market indeed I suspect in reality that the support efforts will outstrip the income, being as the product installs on a rather finicky platform to begin with and...well, we've all dealt with "the public" I'm sure....I can think of several memorable customers in the past that I wish HAD been "freeware" customers just so they could be told "Don't like it? DON'T DOWNLOAD IT". Instead, you get shackled to many hours of supporting unique problems (oftentimes not related to the product itself) with some impatient people who've paid money for the thing to work for them, and your share of the pay after being split among everyone is a curse rather than a blessing. 'Specially when tax time comes......

The first release as freeware is indeed one heck of a way to get a large base of BETA testers, thats for sure.... hmmmm... But it also kills your potential market since lotsa folks are happy 'nuff with the first release. Yeah, I suspect it just fell out this way... but even so, wether it's actually good for all involved will remain to be seen. Lotta hurdles to jump and I'm quite sure you are right about the situation correcting itself, to the chagrin of people on both sides probably. So I wish 'em, and the CFS3 community as a whole, the best in that respect.

They said for a nominal price...so this should be pretty cheap to buy.

On the otherhand, I thought all of OFF was going to be freeware, but I guess they had to rethink their positions on the matter. They should have at least thought over this before they announced OFF...that the whole thing may be very costly. But when I learn of the asking price, I may drop in a few bucks for the whole thing.