I thought this was particularly interesting advice to shareware programmers:

> Hi Group,
> I'm getting more and more tired of CNet (download.com) and Tucows, and then
> my big question is:

Common answer is CNet and forget about Tucows.
Build a community is the best now, not a download site.
Of couse this requires that you have a 110% product, something many
shareware authors do not. (bold emph mine)

This is one thing I've noticed about many successful shareware applications. The companies seem more interested with some strange appeal o' pathos than with being the undisputable best or, when they often are very well written, to be something that makes a lot of economical sense.

Note Delicious Monster's Delicious Library. Well named, nice looking site, very "sexy" product, whatever that means, but do I really need to pay $30 to have my computer keep track of what DVDs I own by reading barcodes through iSight? Yet Delicious Library has popped up time and again as a great app for OS X.

I mean, don't get me wrong. Some people might love something like this. But the app's play has far exceeded its strange niche -- people using OS X who have scadzillions of DVDs in need of an organizer on their computer. This isn't iTunes, that both organizes and stores and makes accessible your CDs. This is just a list of 'em that may or may not link up with your shelf space.

I don't get it. I mean, I do. It's exactly what the usenet poster talked about in the quote, above. It's about community, not product or usefulness ["usefulness at large", let's say]. And if this blog tells you anything by the way I've not pimped it *at all*, it should tell you I'm not yet interested in building and maintaining a digital community simply for the sake of sales.