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Unrestricted vs. Limited Shareware, In Dollars

mklopez writes "There is a belief in the online world that people will be more willing to compensate an author for a downloaded program that has full functionality, versus paying to unlock features in a shareware version. Someone actually put this idea to a test with surprising results."

2 of 97 comments (clear)

  1. Test? What test? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

    Summary links to some guy's blog who briefly mentions the test then explains how he cripples his software.

    The actual test is here

  2. Parent Contains Useful Information by patio11 · · Score: 4, Informative

    (It was my blog, incidentally. I don't know why the submitter had interest in a days old blog about a years old experiment, but eh, I'm happy you found it interesting.)

    Slashdotters will almost certainly find the original article at http://hackvan.com/pub/stig/articles/why-do-people -register-shareware.html as or more interesting as my blog summary of it, which strips out all the detail in favor of talking about another example (Movable Type) and two current programs (one mine, one somebody else's) and their different crippling strategies (features vs. time).

    (I would have modded the parent up but I get 2 points for free and modding only gives the AC 1. Sorry, AC.)