a few days ago i discovered xtorrent, a torrent p2p software, that intergrates torrent search in a very innovative manner. at first it looked great, but after a testspin i realised that the shareware developer had taken nags too far; to the point where the software becomes unusable. so i wrote him the following feedback: [edited slightly to make better sense]
hey there
first of all, you write great software. really. acquisition was the best p2p software i have ever seen. and xtorrent again is the torrent software i had always dreamed of; great features, [the combination of searching torrents and downloading them in one interface], the search in tabs, the integrated rss subscriptions plus the usual nice look and feel. excellent.
however i would never ever pay you money for this. why?
over the years [while occasionally using acquisition] i have observed your nags, also the way you restrict functionalities in order to up the buying impetus, getting worse and worse, more and more aggresive. finally with xtorrent it has reached the point, where the software has literally become unusable without a license. [the floating nag layer, that can’t even get clicked closed is one thing, but i mean come on,] restricting downloads to 10kb? you gotta be kidding, right? isn’t the whole point of downloading things with torrents the speed bonus? [xtorrent also randomly disables searches, in other words two of its major selling points, torrent and integrated search, are restricted]. please deliver a deinstaller, no really, this is getting too much. considering you develop p2p and torrent software, i really think you might be in the wrong area of software development for such an aggressive stance.
what finally kicked me fully to write you this email, is the fact, that you have switched the torrent filetype on my computer. other apps have finally learned to ask, but you go ahead and switch all .torrent files, even the one’s i find by other means, to now open in xtorrent. that is simply outrageous.
yes, that deinstaller is truely needed.
keep writing good software, but maybe with such a nasty nag strategy you should switch to writing [virus protection or security software, where customers can easily be scared into paying you money]. not p2p software.
cheerz jan
his response:
Given that you continue to freeload off my hard work, clearly I have not gone far enough.
i am speechless. but not really that surprised. i am someone, who very often pays for good shareware, that i discover and use alot. but i NEVER ever pay when the nags are so aggressive.. that’s just me.
xtorrent is of course deinstalled already, i don’t need a deinstaller, that was just rethorics…
edit: yay, great news. i found another application that does exactly the same thing as xtorrent, bit rocket. it’s currently in beta, so some things don’t quite work yet, and i have no idea, if it will be shareware, freeware or what. but the integrated search and download functionality works perfect. nice. and it would of course be interesting to know, who had the idea first and who copied it. or is it just zeitgeist?