atomMan

yes i did say "I still never pay for software", after which i said "though i will donate generously to exceptional developers on occasion, usually for open source projects (actually i lie - i did buy ONE license - SandboxIE... oh, and for the original version of Half-Life)" which nullifies your earlier statement, "people exactly like you never donate or purchase licenses" which leaves me wondering how your argument can even be applied to me, unless it is just a rant that isn't really directed toward me, which appears to be the case, yet i'm still the recipient of it i see you assume that i use cracked s/w - well you're both right and wrong; i don't anymore, but yes, i used to on occasion - how about yourself? - and as for my frequency of license purchases, i'm sorry they are less frequent than you would like, but i prefer FOSS over proprietary any day, which means i use very little shareware - why would i want to pay for something like MS Office when Libre is open source and free? as for windows, anyone who has bought a PC with it installed has paid a license fee, though since i have no respect for MS as a company due to political influence, ethical reasons and proprietary software, i will likely never buy an MS product again as far as Lego trying to monetize, that was exactly my purpose here: to let him know about my experiences and hopefully offer some alternatives - one does not have to monetize the software to make money from the software 2 of the devs i donated rather generously to are nuhi and Ryan - nLite and RyanVM - and if i use and like WTK and actually start building installations with it (i only played with it a couple times so far, long ago), i would be likely to donate to Lego as well, not that i'm sure how that's any of your concern WAIT A FRIGGIN MINUTE - I DID DONATE TO LEGO - just realized that! he can verify by looking for a lavabit.com email address, which is probably the one i used other projects i've donated to include Mozilla, Classic Shell, several Firefox extension devs, the people who run UER, a couple of crowd sourced movies, riseup.net, lavabit.com, FindBar Tweak, Notepad++ (i think) and i don't know how many others over the years, and if i could afford more, i would gladly donate more like i said, the world is changing and this utterly childish monetary system which we are slaves to, and which we base everything off of, is either going to be replaced eventually or we will kill ourselves -- and everything else -- trying to maintain it - until then, yes, some of us need to earn a living, but if something isn't working, then i think it's utterly pointless to gripe that it isn't working - if you dislike ad-haters, then find another way because you know very well we are not going to disappear, nor will arguing why you think ad-blockers are evil will cause anyone to magically agree with your opinion and disable their ad-blocker, nor will arguing that "warez" is bad going to cause a revelation among crackers i understand and sympathize somewhat with your reference to warez and all the rest of it, but let me ask you this; does it do any any good to gripe about it? has it done the MPAA and the RIAA any good to gripe about bittorrnet or shut down "pirate" sites? they are people with an antique mindset who refuse to evolve by adapting to the market and what good is it doing them? in no way whatsoever are they going to change the mindset of people who refuse to pay in any meaningful way, so they WILL have to either evolve or die the people determine the market (to an extent at least) no matter how vehemently you or i or anyone else might wish it to be the other way around while i see the point of part of your argument, again, you aren't going to change anything by griping about it ... and you have painted me with a very inaccurate brush

yes, it does say... exactly the opposite of your assumption that i never donate or buy a license, doesn't it -- whoops so i come here and reply to a post, that isn't yours, with the intension of possibly assisting a felow developer, and you jump in and attack me, and I'M the one with an "attitude"? -- wow-wee! you somehow have decided to catorgorize people who prefer an ad-free web as having an"attitude"? and then attempt to reason that, because of the ad-haters, MORE ads are needed? LOLOL the world is changing my friend, whether you like it or not. adapt. there are other ways to earn a living.

@Kelsenellenelvian - that was really uncalled for i'm a "smug" person because i use an ad blocker? or because i don't click on ads? or because i don't support YOU personally? you're funny and where did i say that i never donate or purchase licenses? you're making an assumption that is completely false - you read my other post, WHERE do i say that wise guy? i have donated to several developers, some more than once, and the amounts were very likely to be far more than what they would have asked for if they were charging what a joke

i'm also somewhat interested in this never researched it, but i suspect there's probably s/w that will auto-click all the controls, perhaps scriptable?

regarding the ad blocker thing, i don't have any stats to support this, but i would suspect that the amount of revenue lost from ad blockers is minimal since we (i'm one of them) simply hate advertising and wouldn't click on the ads if they were visable now combine that with the fact that i'm advertising on my own website - HOWEVER... i personally don't run ads from an ad network - they are all useful, hand picked products/services that i actually use and/or recommend, so i actually like the ads on my site and yeah, if anyone thinks runing a dedicated box is cheap, think again - and a site like this can't run on a web-hosting (shared) box

as a hobby developer, i'll share my expierence though i am no expert by any streatch of the imagination, i suspect i have kind of run the gammet with trying to monetize software and these are my personal feelings... * 3rd party offers packeged with the installer (user can opt in/out) -- garbage - though it generated a small income, i felt 'dirty' doing this and will likely never do it again - you will (rightfully) suffer the wrath from users who miss the oppertunity to opt out and have junk installed they didn't want - the executable used to download crap may be downloaded even before the user opts in - you may not be able to offer a portable/archive package - may cause you keep the source closed should you want to open it * donations -- almost useless, people don't donate to any significant degree - i assume you already know this, else you probably wouldn't be contemplating monetizing through other means - may cause you keep the source closed should you want to open it * adware -- i HATE adware and i suspect many users share this feeling - personally i never even contemplate using any such software that contains ads unless it's not something i use often (like a tweak that is run once after OS installation or whatever) - may cause you keep the source closed should you want to open it * desktop shortcuts for product offers -- useless - may cause you keep the source closed should you want to open it * shareware/demoware/crippleware -- this is the method i currently use, though i am not entirely pleased with it - i would much rather provide software for free and monetize another way - users will obviously expect timely support (just sayin') - if the product is popular at all, you will have hackers distributing cracks for it - you have the whole licensing hassle; how to impliment it both client and server side, encryption, keeping track of licenses, etc. - may cause you keep the source closed should you want to open it * free, clean software -- if you don't want to monetize the software itself, you can always create a website for it and place ads on the site - i am also trying this and it does gen a small income, but i don't get allot of traffic (you will likely get a lot more) - big dissadvantage may be that some/many software sites offer direct downloads or hotlink to your files, so users may never see your website, though you can probably entice them there through the software with support contact forms, user forums, software manuals/tutorials/videos/plugins, etc. i would expect that WTK is fairly popular and has a lot of potential (look at nLite - speaking of which, you might want to contact him and see what his feelings are) and so, personally, if i were you and i needed the income, i would: a) keep it free and clean; advertise on the website; c) ask for donations in the software and website; d) possibly charge for priority support most people do not want to pay for software, period, and you will lose a lot of exposure if you go this route, which is why i'm considering other options being a developer myself and realizing the immense effort that goes into a project and the miniscule return realized, i still never pay for software, though i will donate generously to exceptional developers on occasion, usually for open source projects (actually i lie - i did buy ONE license - SandboxIE... oh, and for the original version of Half-Life ) i also never bother with anything for which there is a "pro" version and certinly never anything with a peridical subscription - for whatever reason, that is just a huge turn-off for me, just like adware