Are you a bad-mannered musician ?

[Daniel Pompougnac]

Bad english language.

Hello, guys

Sometimes, I speak with many developpers of free plugins and the conclusion is ever the same…
Do you know what is the time, the work, the effort, the stress to create a plug ? Yes, If you create plugs.
Some developpers make the choice to offer free their plugs. Nice. No money.
But, often, no mails. Silence. People download and download and use and use. It's all. Egoism.
More respect and consideration if you must buy the plug ? Sad.
Sometimes, a mail : « Thank's ». Only a thanks is a great evidence of a good-breeding and make happy the developper.
Much developpers think like me.
And If you don't like the plugin, say by mail : « I don't like this plugin, beacause… ». No silence.

So, I propose to you : every time you download and use a plugin, send a mail to the developper and say « Thank's » or "Try preferably to create a garden ".
And the developper will be happy for all the day along and he will not pound his child and he will offer flowers to his wife and he drive perfectly on the road.
...or he will become a friar.

Don't lynch me, I know I'm right.

Daniel
http://www.pompougnac-daniel.com

[herodotus]

I quite agree with you about people's ingratitude.

But what do you expect? These are musicians we are talking about, after all.

They can barely zip their flies after urinating, much less engage in polite conversation.

[JackDark]

Ingratitude

Ah, yes, I knew there was a reason I stopped producing freeware. And others, for that matter.

[ugo]

But what do you expect? These are musicians we are talking about, after all.

They can barely zip their flies after urinating, much less engage in polite conversation.

so...you speak of musicians as "they" instead of "we" now? are you no longer a musician?...or are you somehow different now that you've mastered dark-art skills such as post-urination-fly-zipping? he must be a witch! burn the heretic!

[bduffy]

I often contact developers, both paid and freeware, to tell them what I think. I'm sure many of you know about the unexpectedly cool things that can happen when you contact a dev directly! You get that feature you wanted! You get more free stuff! Make a new friend! It's one of the greatest things about being this close to the developer, and I highly encourage it.

That being said, I don't do it enough. And I'm a little surprised to hear that daniel would want us to send an email saying, "I don't like your plugin"; but I guess that is constructive criticism! The only reason you never heard from me, Daniel, is that I never liked your plugins; so maybe I'll comment on them more in the future.

A thought: don't you get a lot of feedback here, though? I bet many of us don't bother with email when we can discuss plugins here...

[Lord Snarebottom]

Maybe it's the whole free music paradigm. People want everything for free or for very cheap these days. It reflects their own ID: they are cheap or free, so everyone else should be.

It's a cockroach mentality that's been here forever, and will continue for thousands of millenia to come.

So, with that in mind, I'd like to thank...hmm, well I paid for my stuff (as in you already got your thanks), so I don't need to be thankin' no one!

[mellotronaut]

Somebody told me, a day has 24 hours and we sleep at least 8 hours. This could explain something.

m

[Hannes_F]

Daniel,

you are right.
If I find something useful I often mail to the developer. If you search your inbox you will know, because your plugins are really great.

If somebody has the time to use a plugin for free then he could find the time for saying thank you. Everything else is lame excuses, hehe.


Hannes

[bduffy]

Maybe it's the whole free music paradigm. People want everything for free or for very cheap these days. It reflects their own ID: they are cheap or free, so everyone else should be.

It's a cockroach mentality that's been here forever, and will continue for thousands of millenia to come.

So, with that in mind, I'd like to thank...hmm, well I paid for my stuff (as in you already got your thanks), so I don't need to be thankin' no one!

That's a bit harsh, don't you think? Do people have to pay for everything? Besides; isn't that the promise of the free market? Competitive prices and greater selection? Independant developers can force bigger ones to up their game or lower their prices; all good for the consumer.

And on the other (more idealistic?) side of the coin, you could look at free-to-cheap plugins as an alernative to the whole corporate/capatilist system. I don't think it's something that's deplorable by default. Unless you just mean people having poor, snobby attitudes, in which case, I agree.

[Zombie Queen]

What I think is that, if I were a developer of free stuff (I'm not), I wouldn't like the idea of getting a bunch of e-mails saying, "Hi, I just wanted to tell you that your plugin is cool, thank you". This is junk mail in my opinion. So I don't write such e-mails, as it is in my opinion quite impolite waste of someone's time. If I wanted that kind of response I would put a guestbook on my web page.

[brambos]

What I think is that, if I were a developer of free stuff (I'm not), I wouldn't like the idea of getting a bunch of e-mails saying, "Hi, I just wanted to tell you that your plugin is cool, thank you". This is junk mail in my opinion. So I don't write such e-mails, as it is in my opinion quite impolite waste of someone's time. If I wanted that kind of response I would put a guestbook on my web page.

How mistaken you are. When I released HammerHead back in '97, the internet was a cool place. The coolest thing about Hammerhead was the amount of encouraging email I received. That internet is no more. People expect and demand everything for free these days and barely anything has an inherent value to them anymore. Hence that's one of the reasons I've mostly given up doing the freeware thing. There's not so much in it anymore in the sense of appreciation.

An appreciation email goes a long way.

[bduffy]

What I think is that, if I were a developer of free stuff (I'm not), I wouldn't like the idea of getting a bunch of e-mails saying, "Hi, I just wanted to tell you that your plugin is cool, thank you". This is junk mail in my opinion. So I don't write such e-mails, as it is in my opinion quite impolite waste of someone's time. If I wanted that kind of response I would put a guestbook on my web page.

How mistaken you are. When I released HammerHead back in '97, the internet was a cool place. The coolest thing about Hammerhead was the amount of encouraging email I received. That internet is no more. People expect and demand everything for free these days and barely anything has an inherent value to them anymore. Hence that's one of the reasons I've mostly given up doing the freeware thing. There's not so much in it anymore in the sense of appreciation.

An appreciation email goes a long way.

That's what I would've thought! My brother and I used Hammerhead like crazy back in '98! Thanks for the awesome program, Bram!

This really reminds me to write some more laudatory emails. Good thread!

[brambos]

An appreciation email goes a long way.

That's what I would've thought! My brother and I used Hammerhead like crazy back in '98! Thanks for the awesome program, Bram!

Cheers!

[stag]

Guilty of all charges
I never send an email or contact any freeware developer or payware TBT. I think it was not out of egoism or lack of gratitude... I just hate spam.
What i do most often is recommend their plugs everytime i can. The case of Simulanalog, Digitalfishphones and many others. So credit were it's due.

[kaden]

I grokked Hammerhead so much that 9 years later I made a *mechanical* version of it for my book, with full credit to Bram as the sourcepoint.

Thanks again, Bram.