Why I’m giving away WriteRoom for 6 days | Hacker News Reader

Why I’m giving away WriteRoom for 6 days

blog.hogbaysoftware.com

That's one of the reasons why I allowed them to put ShoveBox in the bundle, despite my initial trepidation.

MacHeist users generally hate anything that requires them to pay money. The standard line about free not being cheap enough for some people applies here. So paid upgrades are a no-go with those users, but some of them will pay for the iPhone app if it's cheap.

I'm modifying the app and my site today to get more of them to convert.

(I should mention that I didn't know about the software until I saw the MacHeist bundle.)

I purchased your app for the iPodTouch today after getting the app with the bundle. I have not been able to get them to sync through the campus wifi but I would be shocked if you told us you were not getting a big increase in app purchases.

Yeah, wifi syncing requires that you have access to a wifi network that doesn't block/break things.

perhaps bluetooth syncing then?

I'm currently using the 30-day trial of WriteRoom to write my NaNoWriMo novel. I had been thinking about buying the program, but wasn't sure if it was worth $25. I recently decided it was, so was going to buy it when my free trial was up. Then this comes up...

I like the software enough that I might decide to buy it even though I can get it for free now. I know I'm not going to buy any of the other software from Hog Bay, so that seems like it might be the right thing to do.

I was also in the midst of a 30-day trial of Writeroom (inspired by http://www.balsamiq.com/blog/2009/10/30/tools/) and I was planning to purchase it. When I saw the Macheist bundle, I downloaded it instead. I don't hesitate to purchase useful software, but I'm too practical to pay more than necessary.

It's just an emotional thing I guess, but still: I bought WriteRoom months ago - I very rarely buy software, because I neither need much nor feel there is enough original value in most of the stuff that gets published. But I liked the minimalistic idea. Now there's a kind of sour aftertaste: I don't have a lot of money as a grad student, so I'm not going to spend it on another software which may be given away for free some time soon. Don't get me wrong: I love your product; but I specifically wanted to support you with the payment. Also, it might make strategic sense for you to give it away etc. There's still some kind of aftertaste though for users who recently bought it.

Don't get me wrong: I love your product; but I specifically wanted to support you with the payment.

And you did. Your purchase had a lot more direct benefit than even 100 people downloading it for free. I'm sure the author appreciates you. They just figured out anyone who would buy it already had so there's little loss in building up an audience to make even more money down the road.

But, still, if the software were worth buying a few months ago, then whatever the price changes to in the future makes no difference to the value you see in it.

Yes, that is obviously his strategy and of course there is value in the product. My point was that it still doesn't change a fundamental human flaw: We see value emotionally. Ultimately, it's still a great software. Even though I recognize that I also recognize that I am upset. I'm just trying to provide an illumination of the downside of that strategy.

Think of it like a hardware purchase. As soon as you have splashed out the money an upgrade comes out. There is always something better and cheaper tomorrow.

When you buy stuff, only buy something which you feel you will be happy about regardless of what happens tomorrow. Otherwise you can wait until that feeling emerges and spend the money then.

And you bought it months ago you said, so you have had much pleasure from it for less than 50 cent per day. How can you beat that?

I think the author is really trying to target people like myself who can't imagine spending money on something that's basically a text editor. Now he'll get me to try it, and if I think it's valuable I may fork over the $10 for the upgrade. If not, I wouldn't have bought it anyway.

I've installed both Shovebox and Writeroom.

I'd probably never have heard of Shovebox otherwise, so it seems like a win for the author.

Writeroom I heard about a while ago, but had forgotten about it.

I signed up for MacHeist because I saw this - mostly, because I'm curious as to the difference between this and Vim's full screen mode (that I use for NaNo right now.)

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